A SHOW about love, failure, stubbornness and being single in a couple-centric world is coming to town as part of a theatre's open mic night,

The third Scratch & Spit night will be held at Bridport’s Lyric Theatre on Monday, June 24

The first half of the evening will be made up of open mic ‘scratch’ slots, with a headline professional show

in the second half.

The headline show this month comes from a performer who took up her craft at the age

of 46. Melanie Branton is looking for a boyfriend. And it's not going well. In her first fulllength

spoken word show, My Cloth-Eared Heart, she charts a thirty-year epic quest that

has included a brush with a psychopath, stalking various strangers on the internet, and a

turbulent relationship with a verb. This is a show about love, failure, stubbornness and being single in a couple-centric world.

Since taking up spoken word in 2014, Melanie Branton has represented Bristol at the Hammer and Tongue and Superheroes of Slam National Slam Finals, had two collections of poetry published (by Oversteps Books and Burning Eye respectively), become a much sought-after headliner on the South-West’s spoken word circuit and beyond, and been invited to perform at Womad and Bristol Harbourfest.

My Cloth-Eared Heart has been previously performed at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, 2018 Wolverhampton Literary

Festival, Glas-Denbury 2018 and the 2018 Barnstaple Fringe Theatrefest.

This showcase is developed in partnership with ArtfulScribe and Apples & Snakes as part of the DO:Write project.

If you'd like to come and take to the stage for a 5-minute open mic slot, please sign up on arrival from 7pm, with the host Rob Casey, who will allocate slots, and if it’s oversubscribed names will get drawn from a hat!

*Scratch & Spit, Lyric Theatre, Bridport, Monday, June 24. Doors and bar open at 7pm for a prompt 7:30pm start. This event is unticketed, on a pay-what-you-feel basis (with a suggested £10 donation) on the night. Bring

cash!