For the 2018 Wheeler Centre Gala Night of Storytelling, we invited our speakers to probe a blazing, hot topic: the power of the written word and the loaded tenets of speech.  

When do words inspire and when do they incite? When is speech free, and when is it hateful? Fighting words, funny words, insulting words and incendiary words – for better or for worse, language moves us and it matters.

In this episode, actor, director and writer Leah Purcell tells us about eight words and slogans that 'lit my fire, fired me up and almost smothered it out'. 

Leah Purcell, on stage at the Athenaeum Theatre — Photo: Jon Tjhia

For the 2018 Wheeler Centre Gala Night of Storytelling, we invited our speakers to probe a blazing, hot topic: the power of the written word and the loaded tenets of speech.  

When do words inspire and when do they incite? When is speech free, and when is it hateful? Fighting words, funny words, insulting words and incendiary words – for better or for worse, language moves us and it matters.

In a speech not for the faint-hearted, playwright Patricia Cornelius makes a case for coarse language – 'a wild thing, ugly, maddening, hilarious, inarticulate, rude, profane' – and against 'cleaning up' the voices of young actors in the theatre.

(Obviously, this episode includes liberal use of strong language. You've been warned!)

Patricia Cornelius at the Wheeler Centre Gala 2018 — Photo: Jon Tjhia