ENTER TODAY BY WRITING A POEM ABOUT PLAY……
HLO Musical Company’s production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience, 1-4 October 2025 at Hampton Hill Theatre, is all about poets.
And Thu 2 October is National Poetry Day. So HLO is holding a poetry competition inviting people to use this year’s National Poetry Day theme, ‘play’, which can be interpreted in any way.
Play a game, play an instrument. Patience itself is a play with music.
Poems can be any length or metre, rhyming or not. Sonnets, haikus, limericks and all other forms of poetry are welcome. There are two age categories: under-16 and over-16.
The poems will be shortlisted and the top five in each category will be displayed in the foyer of Hampton Hill Theatre during show week, for the audience to vote on.
Winners will receive a poetry book.
Poems should be sent to hlomusicalcompany@gmail.com by Friday 26 September.
Helpful Notes:
- Patience, the sixth collaboration by British musical theatre pioneers W S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, was originally produced at London’s Savoy Theatre in 1881. This tale of two rival poets and their fans began as a lampoon of the Victorian Aesthetic Movement but still stands today as a satire on celebrity worship and fickle fandom. HLO Musical Company’s production updates the setting, Thursday Murder Club-style, to an upmarket retirement village.
- Founded in 1903, HLO Musical Company is a friendly, inclusive, local community musical theatre company that stages award-winning productions of Gilbert & Sullivan shows and Broadway/West End musicals, such as last year’s sell-out Evita, at Hampton Hill Theatre. Website: org.uk.
National Poetry Day, the first Thursday in October (2 October in 2025) was founded in 1994 by William Sieghart. Each year it holds a national poetry competition and supports events aimed at encouraging people to write, read and experience poetry. Website: forwardartsfoundation.org/national-poetry-day/