Mayflower Theatre, Southampton – until 11th February 2023
Reviewed by Emma Barnes
4****
This captivating and powerful dance adaptation of the popular TV series has been created for stage by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, with choreography and direction from Rambert’s Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer.
Part prequel to the TV series, the story opens in the battlefield of the 1st world war, giving the audience a view into the horror of emerging from the trenches, bodies shaking and twitching, the stage clouded by yellow mustard gas. We then join the BBC plot in post industrial Birmingham. As narrator Benjamin Zephaniah solemnly announces, these soldiers of the Tunnelling Brigade are ‘all dead… not counted among the dead because your bodies were not buried with the dead… but dead inside’. This serves to set the scene for the violence and lifestyle that the soldiers follow as they seek to take whatever they want.
Throughout the staging, the lighting , the costumes are all magnificent. The quality of the dance is a delight to watch, the fight scenes in particular with blades glinting, daggers flashing and bodies moving in perfect choreographed precision was an eye filling spectacle, as were details such as the Micheal Jackson esque anti gravity leans during the Opium den scene.
The music is also absolutely on point, with a live band blasting out specially commissioned music by Roman GianArthur and iconic Peaky Blinders tracks from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Radiohead, Anna Calvi, The Last Shadow Puppets, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Rambert dance offers an alternative way to experience the well loved Tommy Shelby story through dance and movement rather than dialogue. For me this medium was more successful than the on screen version in characterised the psychological turmoil, post-traumatic stress, bereavement, addiction, suicidal ideation and the subsequent redemption.
Is it an accurate reiteration of the TV story, probably not, and neither should it be. The storytelling is more abstract, much ground is covered within a short space of time. Fans of the TV show may feel that the love story is rushed, indeed the wedding seems to happen only moments after the bride and groom meet. However incidental the story line may seem, what is done incredibly well is the deeper perception into the characters mental health. An intoxicating and insightful window into a world containing much darkness and glimmers of light.
And we loved it. We would implore you to make the same choice that Tommy did, choose life! Immerse yourself in the drama of Peaky Blinders and enjoy the journey.
By order of the Peaky Blinders.