Pelé’s Poetry Series: Screening of "Dreamboat" and "Lift me Up I am Dying"

‘Oh Paradise of Exiles, Italy!’ Julian and Maddalo, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1817

Following the success of the short film Lift Me Up I Am Dying about the death of John Keats, Pelé Cox and her company of actors, directors and dancers have made the second in the trilogy, DREAMBOAT- The Tragedy of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The films chart the last weeks of these young men who died just a year apart in Italy and are among some of the most significant moments in literary history. Edited in Ludlow and screened in Rome & London, the films put these 19th Century poets in front of the lens, highlighting the way in which to this day they remain role models for our literary imagination. DREAMBOAT premiered at GATHER in December

After graduating from her master’s in creative writing at UEA tutored by Andrew Motion, Pele Cox has since been the Poet in Residence at TATE (2007) and Poet in Residence at the RA (2010- 2012). Writer in Residence at BSR and at Keats-Shelley House in Rome and now at John Murray. Her three sell-out performances at the Royal Academy were created specially in response to the exhibitions: Van Gogh and Poetry, Degas and The Dance and Hockney and His Poetic Imagination, lastly her performance; Obscuring the Word was presented to Royal Academicians as a tribute to Cy Twombly. In 2013 she was commissioned to create a series of site-specific events around the idea of poetry and influence at Keats-Shelley House in Rome; Unbound and Lift Me Up, I am Dying; a poetic drama on the death of Keats which was made into her acclaimed 2020 film starring Christian Roe Nicholas Rowe and Damian Lewis. DREAMBOAT, her second is about Shelley. She has lectured at the Walker Art Gallery on David Hockney and Cavafy, and at Keats- Shelley House on the influence of the Romantic Poets on great artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Cy Twombly. Her performance of The Mistress Account was given special commendation at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. And was performed at LAR in 2024. She runs her poetry series at the Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Lemn Sissay will perform on April 24th. She passionately believes in poetry as a tool for self-expression and teaches regular classes at GATHER in Ludlow and at schools and organisations.

Her performances, poetry and workshops have been featured in The RA magazine; Tate; London Magazine; FT-arts and travel section; London Magazine; The Oldie, The Guardian; The Sunday Times Magazine.