Rambert Peaky Blinders Festival Theatre Edinburgh 28th February 2023 Review
Rambert and Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at The Festival Theatre Edinburgh (Tue 28 Feb to Sat 4 Mar) is a creative collaboration between the renowned contemporary dance company and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and the result is a spectacular theatrical event that should not be missed (If you can still get a ticket).
Normally, for a review, I tend to list behind the scenes creatives later on, but for this show they have to come first as they are the people that have so carefully recreated not only the looks and sounds of the television series, but also that dark atmosphere and that feeling of tension; you just never know when the Peaky Blinders or some other gang are going to explode into violence. Taking the inherent violence of this television series and transferring it to dance without glorifying it was never going to be an easy task, and few people have ever managed to do it well on film or stage with any style (think West Side Story), and Peaky Blinders is now an addition to that small and select list.
Much of the success of this show starts with the writing, and Steven Knight has created a wonderful script here as we start right at the very beginning of what makes Thomas Shelby think and we are right there in the trenches of WW1 with Sgt Major Thomas Shelby, his brothers, and other soon to be Peaky Blinders. With this script, this show is really a huge compression of the time covered in the television series yet, somehow, the majority of the main events and characters are here too.
How do you tell on stage the story of a man who along with the other Peaky Blinders considered himself to have died in the battlefields of war and therefore free to do anything that he now wanted to do with the body that somehow survived? The answer by Steven Knight is a simple one in theory, but difficult to execute in real terms, and Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is in its essence a love story between Thomas Shelby and Grace Burgess and the eventual redemption that comes when he renounces his path of violence, but never the memories of his actions along that path.
Recreating the world of Peaky Blinders on stage for the dancers to become who they are has required Rambert as a company to undertake their largest show to date (and this one is in association with Birmingham Hippodrome and co-produced by The Lowry) and the costume team alone, headed by designer Richard Gellar, have sourced, adapted and commissioned over 1500 individual pieces for this show. Special mention has to also be given to Set Designer Moi Tran, Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers, and just everyone who worked on this production.
Rambert is of course about dance, and choreographer/director Benoit Swan Pouffer has created his own masterpiece here as he captures everything that fans of the show would expect. In the first half of this show we get to understand the brutality of the world that the Peaky Blinders live in, but in the second half we actually start to get into the head of Thomas Shelby himself and an opium induced fantasy scene will surprise many people. This is also one of the very few shows where I have ever seen realistic fighting techniques used in choreography.
Music is of course essential to dance and here composer Roman Gianarthur has taken the original soundscape and perfectly created a new one for dance and theatre. This show is a little bit different as there are live musicians playing onstage (Yaron Engler, James Douglas, The Last Morrell) to give us that very dark and contemporary music soundtrack that the original television series was known for. Some of the classics from the television show are still here too, including “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Added into this sound mix is narration by poet Benjamin Zephaniah (who played a soldier turned preacher in the television series).
To the dancers then. So much of this show was always going to rest upon the shoulders of who was going to take the lead role of Thomas Shelby, and Guillaume Queau is just perfect with that air of confidence (never arrogance) that you expect his character to exude. Here Guillaume has everything that is needed, not only the technical dance skills and the ability to express emotions through his dances, but a personal magnetism that makes you want to follow him wherever he walks on stage. This personal magnetism was always so much of the character make-up of Thomas Shelby too.
Taking the role of Arthur, Conor Kerrigan always gave us that dangerous hair-trigger response to things that this character required, while Joseph Kudra as John always made his presence known. Stealing the stage for so many reasons for many scenes, was an incredible performance by Musa Motha as Barney.
Peaky Blinders created powerful women too and Naya Lovell is the Grace that Thomas Shelby needs in this show. Two other strong women and strong performances from Simone Damberg Wurtz (Polly) and Adel Balint (Ada).
If you are a fan of the television show then you will perhaps be more aware of who everyone is in this production but, to be honest, if you have never seen the show then don’t worry as Rambert and Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby stands on its own as a carefully crafted work of dance theatre too.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Normally, for a review, I tend to list behind the scenes creatives later on, but for this show they have to come first as they are the people that have so carefully recreated not only the looks and sounds of the television series, but also that dark atmosphere and that feeling of tension; you just never know when the Peaky Blinders or some other gang are going to explode into violence. Taking the inherent violence of this television series and transferring it to dance without glorifying it was never going to be an easy task, and few people have ever managed to do it well on film or stage with any style (think West Side Story), and Peaky Blinders is now an addition to that small and select list.
Much of the success of this show starts with the writing, and Steven Knight has created a wonderful script here as we start right at the very beginning of what makes Thomas Shelby think and we are right there in the trenches of WW1 with Sgt Major Thomas Shelby, his brothers, and other soon to be Peaky Blinders. With this script, this show is really a huge compression of the time covered in the television series yet, somehow, the majority of the main events and characters are here too.
How do you tell on stage the story of a man who along with the other Peaky Blinders considered himself to have died in the battlefields of war and therefore free to do anything that he now wanted to do with the body that somehow survived? The answer by Steven Knight is a simple one in theory, but difficult to execute in real terms, and Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is in its essence a love story between Thomas Shelby and Grace Burgess and the eventual redemption that comes when he renounces his path of violence, but never the memories of his actions along that path.
Recreating the world of Peaky Blinders on stage for the dancers to become who they are has required Rambert as a company to undertake their largest show to date (and this one is in association with Birmingham Hippodrome and co-produced by The Lowry) and the costume team alone, headed by designer Richard Gellar, have sourced, adapted and commissioned over 1500 individual pieces for this show. Special mention has to also be given to Set Designer Moi Tran, Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers, and just everyone who worked on this production.
Rambert is of course about dance, and choreographer/director Benoit Swan Pouffer has created his own masterpiece here as he captures everything that fans of the show would expect. In the first half of this show we get to understand the brutality of the world that the Peaky Blinders live in, but in the second half we actually start to get into the head of Thomas Shelby himself and an opium induced fantasy scene will surprise many people. This is also one of the very few shows where I have ever seen realistic fighting techniques used in choreography.
Music is of course essential to dance and here composer Roman Gianarthur has taken the original soundscape and perfectly created a new one for dance and theatre. This show is a little bit different as there are live musicians playing onstage (Yaron Engler, James Douglas, The Last Morrell) to give us that very dark and contemporary music soundtrack that the original television series was known for. Some of the classics from the television show are still here too, including “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Added into this sound mix is narration by poet Benjamin Zephaniah (who played a soldier turned preacher in the television series).
To the dancers then. So much of this show was always going to rest upon the shoulders of who was going to take the lead role of Thomas Shelby, and Guillaume Queau is just perfect with that air of confidence (never arrogance) that you expect his character to exude. Here Guillaume has everything that is needed, not only the technical dance skills and the ability to express emotions through his dances, but a personal magnetism that makes you want to follow him wherever he walks on stage. This personal magnetism was always so much of the character make-up of Thomas Shelby too.
Taking the role of Arthur, Conor Kerrigan always gave us that dangerous hair-trigger response to things that this character required, while Joseph Kudra as John always made his presence known. Stealing the stage for so many reasons for many scenes, was an incredible performance by Musa Motha as Barney.
Peaky Blinders created powerful women too and Naya Lovell is the Grace that Thomas Shelby needs in this show. Two other strong women and strong performances from Simone Damberg Wurtz (Polly) and Adel Balint (Ada).
If you are a fan of the television show then you will perhaps be more aware of who everyone is in this production but, to be honest, if you have never seen the show then don’t worry as Rambert and Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby stands on its own as a carefully crafted work of dance theatre too.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com