A fairly frequent visitor to the Lake District and Cotswolds, each time my plus 1 and I are ambling down a country lane, gingerly (me. him- confidently) crossing a stream, roasting ourselves in front of an open fire in an aggressively cosy english pub, we ponder

But why, the hecky peck, don’t we relocate and live here permanently in a state of exhilaration, ecstacy and endless polite but slightly awkward ‘hellos’ when we pass another couple on a brisk country walk?

Well because we’d miss out on the type of post-work, mid week events that living in the city, nay Manchester, rewards us with, bringing education, entertainment and an energy that only having the arts on glorious tap can bring.

This week brought stand-up in Salford, it brought a festival of music, projection, light and performance in Sale, but first it brought a fascinating opportunity to both listen to, and be part of, Speak Out! at HOME, Mcr – an evening of appreciation, education and exploration behind the art of speech-writing and rhetoric.

Political Speech is Dead! Long Live Political Speech!

Speech-making may be dead at Westminster, but in communities, schools prisons and clubs across the UK it’s alive and kicking.

(Dash Arts are) bringing together speechwriters, activists, academics and the voices of our nation to explore speech-making’s ability to provoke, persuade and empower

Dash arts

As part of a series of three live talks on the art of speechwriting, and as part of HOME’s Theatre 1 Autumn 23 – Spring 24 season, Dash Arts brought us a conversation on the ingredients of a great speech.

Hosted and chaired by Artistic Director of Dash Arts, Josephine Burton, we were joined by Jessica Cunniffe who penned David Cameron’s last speech to his party as Prime Minister (look who’s back…), in a bid to ‘discover secrets and anecdotes’ behind writing political speeches. Joining her were classicist and cultural historian, Edith Hall and academic Henriette van der Blom.

Actor, Ciaran Kellgren, bookended proceedings with excerpts from speeches by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Winston Churchill and Barack Obama; all illustrating elements of what constitutes a powerful, memorable and impactful speech.

Prevalent in persuasive writing, is the power of three, also known as tricolon; three words, three phrases, three ideas…It’s something many of us will use, perhaps even subconsciously, such is the commonality of its deployment in public speaking and prose.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Julius Caesar

Indeed we were given a reminder by Edith Hall, (who also performed herself, the wonderful ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ by American Activist, Sojourner Truth), that whilst speech-writing is, of course, nothing new, its very origins and rules to which we draw upon and execute, were laid out and established by ancient Greeks such as Plato and, more significantly, Aristotle.

Though, what made me sit up and listen even more, were the speeches throughout the evening. written and, in most cases, performed by community speakers from across the country, who Dash Arts have been working with to ‘find their voice’ as part of the ‘Speech Speech’, project. As we learnt from Henriette This was a year of Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded workshops, with Birmingham University and University of East Anglia.

We had the pleasure of listening to Tony from the Norfolk Park and Arbourthorne Men’s Group, Kate Lord, Michael McKeown, Kayleigh Roach, Craig Bird and HMP Styal Participant, Janine, whose speech was read by Cristina Catalina. We heard impassioned, honest, persuasive arguments about community funding (funding being a thread largely running throughout), educational elitism, of Statements of Educational Needs (or lack of), of government departments not ‘picking up the bloody phone’, of causes all close to the speakers’ hearts and, as a consequence of their impassioned speeches, in that moment (and perhaps beyond), our hearts too.

Behind the words, we learned the importance of delivery, of metaphors, or personal anecdotes bringing life to the ‘concept’, of alliteration (LOVE a bit of alliteration, I do), of (and I can’t remember the phrase so educate me in the comments) answering a critic’s counter-argument before it’s been made.

Paraphrasing Tony, here,

You say you can’t afford to? I say you can’t afford not to

We had an insight into the art of political speech-writing, with Jess Cunniffe. Who revealed just how hands-on David Cameron is with his speeches (46 drafts later), whether it is possible to effectively write a speech which champions a cause that you yourself do not feel either impassioned by or support (it is – just as legal argument and debate is. You can be passionate about the writing and language employed, whilst separating from the topic in hand).

We talked about how the mechanisms and principals of speech-writing are ideologically neutral.

Edith Hall introduced the ABCD to remember of a great speech:

• A – audience
• B – brevity
• C – clarity
• D – delivery

Indeed it was Aristotle who introduced the ‘rhetorical triangle’ of what is required to appeal to and persuade an audience

Logos, Ethos and Pathos.

Like all good events and, indeed, evenings, I came away from entertained, moved, educated and inspired. I came away with some further reading from Henriette van der Blom and Alan Finlayson at the Universities of Birmingham and East Anglia, respectively, and with a new found love for a bedtime podcast on Aristotle (don’t worry, they haven’t quite usurped my other podcasts on real crime, real ghost-sightings and Real Housewives).

So what’s next (aside from me taking a long. hard look at myself, based on the realisation that I have a penchant for a questionable podcast)?

Well all work is to feed into, and culminate with ‘Our Public House,’ a state-of-the-nation theatre production from Dash Arts. Inspired by the speeches and writing of our national participants, it will be written by Jude Christina, directed by Josephine Burton.

And devoured by my good self.

Dash Arts? with this project, You came, I saw, You won.

For more information on the organisation and work of Dash Arts, including this project, you can visit https://www.dasharts.org.uk/

For more details of HOME Mcr’s Theatre 1 Autumn 23 – Spring 24 season, visit https://homemcr.org/event/theatre-1-autumn-2023-spring-2024-season/