Forbidden Fruit – workshop

Illustrated readers’ and writers’ workshop exploring the themes of unrequited love and illicit desire in some famous English poems and paintings of the nineteenth century.

Following our workshops on portraiture and place, we will enter the dark heart of the nineteenth century and explore poets’ and painters’ strange obsession with narratives from the dangerous underworlds of temptation and unfulfilled desire.

Goblin Market, Mariana and The Lady of Shallot will feature, alongside paintings by Millais, Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Waterhouse. The portrayal of young women in these poems and paintings will be a key and quite possibly a contentious theme. This morning of strong readings and powerful imaginings should be an ideal springboard for the creation of some lively new work for our concert afternoon.

Everyone who attends this morning workshop will be invited to share their work in the “concert” of readings on the afternoon of Saturday 7 September – book here.

Curated & led by Sue Boyle