"The best poetry doesn't wash off. Paul Case brings spray cans, chips and contusions" - Tim Wells
Spent is a Molotov cocktail of poems and stories that explore the collision of the personal and political. At the chaotic intersection of punk, radical politics, drugs and alcohol abuse, and mental health, Case’s words traverse a burnt out, late capitalist landscape where escaping into oblivion is all too inviting.
From punchy punk poetry to apocalyptic visions, this searing work deftly combines nightmarish absurdism, gallows humour and poignant revelation to devastating effect. It shines a light on society’s underbelly and reveals disillusionment, dependency and violence while the wider world hangs by a thread. Yet amongst all this, Spent recognises the bloody-minded hope that keeps us all striving.
The result is a defiantly original and humane piece of work.
Paul Case is a writer and actor living in Edinburgh. He has performed his own poems and stories all over the UK and internationally since 2008. He has also written, performed and toured the solo theatre shows Dead White Anarchists (2019-2022) and Rogues So Banished (2024).