Ben Mellor is an award-wining poet and performer debuting his new show, “Kiss It Better - a playful, potent perusal of the placebo effect”. It is part of the celebrations for Manchester achieving the accolade of European City of Science.
Billed as a mixture of performance lecture, stand-up poetry, confessional storytelling, ritual, live music and audience interaction; tonight’s one hour performance didn’t disappoint, the result was much greater than its component parts.
Ben was a genial host, welcoming the audience as we took our seats. We’d been asked to fill in a mini questionnaire before we came in, this had the potential to elicit comedy from the lives of those assembling, but it was only a small part of tonight’s performance - depending on the audience this component could be used to keep this show fresh but tonight was its first outing on to the stage and so I don’t think it needed much. Ben himself stated at the end that this is still very much a work in progress - in true scientific manner we were the guinea pigs!
I had no expectations from tonight’s show but I was intrigued by the concept. I left the theatre space with food for both my mind and my heart. I’d been entertained by Ben’s witty humour and I genuinely grew to like his personality and philosophy. For me tonight was edu-tertainment, an evening that entertained and broadened minds.
Ben wrote the show and his use of words was clever, insightful and thought-provoking, a hallmark of his poetic heart. I particularly liked his investigation into homeopathy and the idea that dilution makes something stronger, that’s counter-intuitive and scientifically flawed but this clever wordsmith flipped the context. He mused about how we can become diluted in a crowd but yet gain strength from being in it and how diluted we are in the cosmic backdrop, our issues and our very lives seem insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe; it’s at this point that we realise life is for living and enjoying.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with Ben Mellor and my fellow guinea pigs of scientific discovery. I look forward to seeing how this show evolves and I recommend you go and see it on Saturday 14th May, it would be interesting to see what you think about the experience.
Reviewer: Alan Harbottle
Reviewed: 13th May 2016
