Skip to main content
Image of two people standing on a smoke filled stage.
View all events for category: Literature & poetry

Special Edition: Container by Alan Fielden

Immerse yourself in an a capella choral performance exploring the violence and tenderness of living through catastrophe.

More details for National Poetry Library, Level 5, Blue Side, Royal Festival Hall
This event has passed

Drawing influence from Laurie Anderson’s music and Robert Ashley’s television operas, Container makes use of overlapping poetic narratives and live music to explore alternative treatments of text, voice and storytelling.

Structured yet improvised, with words and phrases iterating, converging, branching and repeating in a cascade of images and characters, the performance uses polyphony to express tenderness, overwhelm and hysteria.

Written, directed and performed by Alan Fielden, with Tim Cape (Bastard Assignments), Ben Kulvichit and Clara Potter-Sweet (Emergency Chorus), and Jemima Yong (JAMS).

Need to know

Age guidance
For ages 16+
Content warnings
Contains adult language, reference to political violence and descriptions of sexual activity.

For your visit

This event is held at the National Poetry Library Southbank Centre

The National Poetry Library is open six days a week.

Tuesday, 12 noon – 6pm
Wednesday – Sunday, 12 noon – 8pm
Monday, closed.

A row of colourful lockers in rainbow order View larger image
NPL staff members sat behind the Welcome Desk in the library View larger image
Speaker stood at a yellow podium performing in the National Poetry Library to an audience in front of colourful lockers View larger image
A reading section with red and yellow cushions and chairs View larger image
A locker handle with 3 prongs View larger image
A tour leader speaking to a group of people in the National Poetry Library View larger image
The interior of a library with book shelves, desks and chairs View larger image

Getting here

The National Poetry Library is on Level 5 of our Royal Festival Hall.

Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.

The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues.  More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.

We’re cash-free

Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.

 

Access

We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.

All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access. 

All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.

 

Study & library use

The library is London’s only space dedicated to poetry study. Visitors studying another subject or looking for a place to work are kindly asked to find an alternative space in the Royal Festival Hall.