PIED PIPER To 3 January.
London.
PIED PIPER
A HIP-HOP DANCE REVOLUTION.
Barbican Theatre To 3 January 2010.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval.
TICKETS: 0845 120 7550.
www.barbican.org.uk/bite
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 December.
High volume energy invades the Barbican.
“Do Something Different” commands Barbican publicity, and they have. Looking east, they’ve developed their working relationship with Stratford E15’s Theatre Royal by staging Boy Blue Entertainment’s Pied Piper once before, and now reviving it. Added to last Christmas’s Scottish walk-through Hansel and Gretel it shows an eclectic seasonal policy in the City of London.
It’s an apt location for Pied Piper. How many newspapers have been read by City commuters, with headlines about crime figures, knife-crime and the perils of ‘hoodies’? Well, here are hoods in plenty, right from the start. And ASBO kids. And the real villains, a quartet of grey boulder-headed business types, hulking on and skulking off as they diddle the Piper out of the cash-stash they’d offered him for clearing human ‘vermin’ from their streets.
As a result they lose their children. But it seems the young people’s gain, as they’re finally seen in a distant land, dancing freely together, having left behind the moral grime of their old society.
So much for themes; now on with the dance. Which is just about the whole point here. TV-news style projections set-up the story, but it’s only the merest outline, to give a street-cred setting for the train of street-dancing that’s the reason we’re all there.
It’s a circus of flipping, gyrating (how some hands, supporting bodies through 360 degrees several times round, don’t become sprained is a mystery), leaping and body movement fragmented into a sequence of rhythmic spasms. There’s contest and conflict. There’s assertion and victory, all told in a language that engages young people who’ve absorbed the technique and the spirit.
They’ve an enthusiastic audience - assuming the young crowd screaming approval at the Stage Door weren’t all keen supporters of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, who’d been playing in the Barbican Hall. The difference Pied Piperites make around the place is engrossing, stair-rails turning into improvised slides, doubtless in defiance of several Health and Safety regulations simultaneously.
There again, with so much disciplined energy for 80 minutes on stage, where’s the surprise at young audiences themselves building up a head of steam?
Pied Piper: Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy/(mats & 16 Dec)Duwane ‘Sparxx’ Taylor.
2nd Piper Duwane ‘Sparxx’ Taylor (except mats & 16 Dec).
Piper’s Ego: Bradley Charles, Kofi ‘Klik’ Mongo., Robert ‘Flipz’ Anker.
Head Rat: Frank Wilson.
Daniella ‘Danni’ Abraham, Kofi ‘Game’ Agyemang, Olu Alatise, Issac ‘Turbo’ Baptiste, Mincia Beason, Karen ‘2D’ Bengo, Caramel, Lee ‘Reckless’ Crowley, Shane Cusack, Hollie ‘BamBam’ Dee, Calvin Francis, Kendra J Horsburgh, Jason ‘Flip Mode’ Hull, Nathaniel ‘Sweetboy’ Impraim-Jones, Victoria ‘Skytilz’ Mantey, Bruno ‘Boom’ Perrier, Chantelle Prince, Alice Rhodes, Nadia Sohawon, Charlene ‘Mini’ Willets.
Children of Hamelin: (10-16 Dec) Connor Casey-Kon, Daisy Chapman, Francesca Fanelli, Genesis Dela Cruz, Georgina Murtagh, Jameka Colquhoun, Jamilla Alleyne, Jason Nruyen, Leydia Bhugon, Lily Byrne, Lily Le, Michael Ureta, Molly Boulding, Nicole Antoine Annan.
(17-20 Dec) Bren Grimberg, Chantelle Capstick, Chelsea Hegarty, Cleo Synes, Duja Sinada, Elisha Martin, Eva Larkai, Ezana Moore, Georgia Lester, Georgia Shepherd, Kirsty McCreight, Malaz Elsafi, Mollie Marshall, Odaka Kalu, Pennelope Richards.
(22-27 Dec) Abigail Akinwunmi, Duane Kitara, Ernest Hammond, Grace Dunham, Haile Blackwood, India Bowen, Jay Howell, Jordan Franklin, Lukaz Rybicki, Marcus Francisco, Mitchell Taunton, Monalisa Muriritirwa, Morgan Bolton, Myles Thorpe, Omari Mathurin-Russell, Perry Howell, Serena Webb, Sophie Rimmer, Summer O’Mahoney.
(29 Dec-3 Jan) Akai Osei-Mansfield, Amy Wright, Ashanti Osei-Mansfield, Ashleigh Myers, Aston Joshua, Chelsi Haywood, Claire Hough, Daniel Agard, Demi Myers, Ellie Saunders, Gary McDermott, Georgia Powell, Jeydia Salih, Joseph Francois, Keren Lewis, Lauren Merritt, Leanne Spence, Rhianna Morgan.
Director/Designer: Ultz.
Lighting :(original) Jo Joelson, (revival) Neville Milsom.
Sound: Lee Evans.
Composer/Musical Supervisor: Michael ‘MikeyJ’ Asante.
Video: Snakeoil Media.
Choreographer: Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy.
Assistant choreographers: Bradley Charles, Hollie ‘BamBam’ Dee, Victoria ‘Skytilz’ Mantey, Kofi ‘Klik’ Mingo, Charlene ‘Mini’ Willets.
2009-12-16 12:11:59