The Scotsman 3 May 2023

Imogen Stirling did not set out to publish another poetry collection. She sees herself as a performance poet; one for whom the spoken word takes precedence over the written. But then the pandemic happened and suddenly speaking her verse aloud was not an option. So a book it was.

Published in 2022, it was called Love The Sinner and came complete with a glowing recommendation from the mighty Benjamin Zephaniah. “I think this is the work of a lyrical genius,” he said. “It is crafted by a great poet, and crafted with emotional depth. There’s nothing like this. There’s no one like Imogen.”

But the multi-tasking Stirling, who describes herself as “a performance poet, theatre-maker, musician, writer and facilitator,” was not prepared to leave it at that. Having completed an extensive book tour last year, she was ready to turn Love The Sinner into a fully fledged stage show. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).