We’ll be previewing the film of our live-streamed performance of BODY 115 here: 1 February, 12:00HRS
1 February is Imbolc, a Gaelic festival that marks the beginning of spring. It is also the feast day of Saint Brigid, in whose honour a perpetual fire was kept burning for centuries…
On the 18th November 1987 a fire broke out in the Underground station at London’s King’s Cross claiming the lives of 31 people. One unidentified victim, burned beyond all recognition, was known, for over 20 years, as ‘Body 115’, the mortuary tag they were assigned. King’s Cross (previously known as Battle Bridge) was the also the site where Boudicca’s rebel army confronted the Roman garrison, setting Londinium ablaze and reducing it to ashes. Today, a rejuvenated gateway to Europe, its cafes, piazzas and boulevards mask a seedy and often squalid history. And from the rain-washed, subterranean underworld of King’s Cross, ‘Body 115’ emerges, a Virgil like figure to Noble’s Dante in this modern day homage to the ‘Divine Comedy’.
‘A poetic masterpiece’ ★★★★★
‘One hour of literary and poetic brilliance’ ★★★★
‘Utterly captivating’ ★★★★
18 NOVEMBER 2025 LIVE-STREAM
19:30: Performance
20:30: Q&A
21:00: Soundtrack stream
We’ll be joined by Professor Gregory Leadbetter and Professor Majeed Mohammed after our live-stream for a brief discussion at the intersection of theatre and poetry…
Gregory Leadbetter is Professor of Poetry at Birmingham City University and the author of ‘The Infernal Garden’ (2025), ‘Maskwork’ (2020) and ‘The Fetch’ (2016), published by Nine Arches Press, Caliban (Dare-Gale Press, 2023), ‘Balanuve’, with photographs by Phil Thomson (Broken Sleep, 2021), and the pamphlet ‘The Body in the Well’ (HappenStance Press, 2007). He has written both poetry and radio drama for the BBC, and in 2019 five poems from The Fetch were set to music for piano and voice by the American composer and pianist Eric McElroy. His book Coleridge and the Daemonic Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) won the University English Book Prize 2012 and publishes widely on Romantic poetry and thought, twentieth-century and contemporary poetry.
Majeed Mohammed Midhin is a Professor in Literature and Contemporary British Drama at the University of Anbar, IRAQ. Previously, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of East Anglia (UK). In 2017, he obtained a PhD in Literature from the University of Essex under the supervision of Dr. Clare Finburgh and Dr. Elizabeth J. Kuti. He also has an MA in English Literature from the University of Baghdad’s College of Languages. His primary field of interest is modern and contemporary British drama as it affects the immediate needs of people in society. He has published widely on British theatre and Shakespearean drama, and has participated in many colloquiums, conferences, and seminars in and beyond the UK. Recently, his writings about Iraqi theatre acquire an international taste as his articles about some modern Iraqi plays won international prizes. His article entitled “National Cultural History and Transnational Political Concerns in Rasha Fadhil’s ‘Ishtar in Baghdad’” is awarded the best article in 2022 by The Janovics Center Award for Outstanding Humanities Research in Transnational Film and Theatre Studies, Romania.
Jack Arnold’s theatre soundtrack will also be available to stream as a companion piece for 24 hours after the show prior to it’s release in 2026
We gratefully acknowledge Audiohire for their dedication and professionalism in making this event possible
BODY 115 