Prize-winning author Michael Rosen delves into personal grief and mortality with monologue and poetry show in Buxton
Former children’s laureate and award-winning writer Michael Rosen will present a powerful and personal double bill of monologue and poetry that delves into trauma, grief and mortality.
Michael will visit Buxton’s Pavilion Arts Centre on Friday, June 20, with his one-person show titled Getting Through It.
In the first part, The Death of Eddie, Michael recounts the loss of his son from meningitis at the age of 18. He shares the grief and the often strange, contradictory mix of emotions felt during the mourning process. This story, memorably captured in Michael’s children’s book The Sad Book, is told here in vivid and unsparing detail.
In the second part, Many Kinds of Love, Michael recalls how he contracted COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. Spending 48 days in intensive care and being placed into an induced coma, he had a 50% chance of dying. He explores the effects of COVID on his body and mind and how his life was saved by NHS workers working within a government policy that looked to sacrifice an older generation for the sake of attempting to achieve herd immunity.
Both experiences are amongst those addressed in Michael’s critically acclaimed 2023 book Getting Better – life lessons on going under, getting over it, and getting through it.
Deeply personal yet universally relatable, Getting Through It speaks to anyone who has loved and lost, anyone who has struggled and survived.
Michael said: “I have found that the best way for me to handle the 'big stuff' that I've been through, is to write about it in 'bits', fragments. Then, when I string these fragments together, they tell a story of what happened and how I feel about it. It's like a mosaic. As the title says, it is indeed about 'getting through it', but I very much hope that in telling the story, it helps anyone watching find that though that we might bend but we can find ways to not break. One of the ways, as you might expect with me, has been to discover that there is, incredibly, an absurd and comic side to this.”
One of Britain’s most beloved writers and performance poets, Michael has written more than 200 books and won the Pen Pinter Award 2023 which recognises outstanding literary merit. He is Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmith’s University and has presented the Radio 4 show Word of Mouth since 1998. He regularly appears at literary festivals across the UK and visits schools and teacher training departments to perform and to give advice on teaching children’s literature.
Michael’s show Getting Through It is suitable for 15+ years. Tickets cost £23; go to www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk