THERE is nothing like a dark, cold night in January to make you crave the warmth of the summer sun and Simon Barraclough’s Sunspots at the Burton Taylor Studio seemed the perfect way to get reacquainted with our elusive friend.

Simon is a poet with a passion for our nearest star and he uses a variety of methods to bring his poetry to life. Combining the spoken word with live music, singing and impressive visual projections, he creates a highly entertaining evening.

The performance opens with Oliver Barrett’s haunting musical arrangements which frame Simon’s poetry throughout the evening. At times, Simon picks up a brass instrument, which he plays with some skill, while at others he’ll demonstrate his excellent singing voice. The transition from poetry to live music and singing is stimulating.

Jack Wake-Walker’s film sections are a feast for the eyes and link perfectly with the musical score. I particularly enjoyed the timing of the music with the projections in the final section of exploding stars accompanied by orchestral flourishes a-plenty.

The audio-visual elements are striking, but it is Simon’s “spoken word” that is the real “star”. He takes us on a journey from the Sun’s morning birth to its eventual death. Along the way there is humour and horror. I took my 15-year-old stepson along who is a student at the Banbury Space School, and he very much enjoyed the sections describing Earth’s seas boiling away and “charred corpses” on the streets.

Simon then donned a yellow jacket and sun shades and became the Sun itself, his disdain for human kind evident (“I pity your brief lives”). An altogether enjoyable evening, we came away entertained, enlightened and much more knowledgeable about that ball of hydrogen in the sky.

ROB HALL 4/5