Colin Grant

Emily Dickinson peppered her poems with hints of her epilepsy; Ian Curtis mimicked it in his flaying dance performance style; Dostoevsky revelled in the dreamy state of the condition and marvelled at the ecstatic hallucinations of Prince Myshkin, his literary proxy in The Idiot. The literary cabaret, Speaky Spokey hosted by Colin Grant, author of A Smell of Burning: the Story of Epilepsy, presents an evening exploring the cultural history of what Shakespeare referred to as ‘the falling sickness’ in film, poetry and prose.

Speaky Spokey conjures the parallel and often revelatory world of epilepsy with reflections on William Fienne’s memoir, The Music Room, and Ray Robinson’s novel, Electricity, which was recently recreated as a stunning film, starring Agyness Deyn.

The cabaret also features the theatre director/producer Jane Gauntlett who was knocked off her bike by muggers a few years back, underwent brain surgery, learned to live with a severe brain injury, then developed epilepsy. Jane will demonstrate Waking in Slough, the first piece of her In My Shoes project to fuse empathy, technology and interactive theatre. Waking in Slough kits out theatre-goers in video-goggles, and allows them to experience the strange dreamy-like state and temporary memory loss that sometimes accompanies a seizure.