Leeds Playhouse – 15 February 2025
Reviewed by Dawn Smallwood
4****
Imitating the Dog adapts and brings their latest production, All Blood Runs Red, to Leeds Playhouse and forms part of a UK Tour. All Blood Runs Red is created by Morgan Bailey, Pete Brooks, Simon Wainwright and Andrew Quick and is about the true story of Eugene Bullard. Bullard was one of the first African American military fighter pilots in the first World War and he also had a varied career from being a circus entertainer to a civil rights activist. He worked with Josephine Baker, an iconic French dancer and Duke Ellington, an American jazz legend.
The production is directed by Tyrone Huggins and is co-written and performed by Bailey, whose experiences intertwine with the life story of Bullard. The show begins when Bailey shares how he encountered Brooks and Quick in Paris during a movie publicity and the performer’s experience of film making created the idea for All Blood Runs Red and then delves straight into the life story of Bullard.
Imitating the dog is renowned for its digital and visual creativity for telling stories and how they do this with both theatre and technology with support from Andrew Crofts (lighting) and James Hamilton (music and soundscapes). All Blood Runs Red is no exception, and the production is done so well, and how the stage backdrop projections digitally link to the story’s props Bailey uses in referring to the key events and timelines in Bullard’s life.
Captivating and intriguing story telling runs throughout with its chronological build-up of Bullard’s life, 20th Century important and key events, and related themes such as being an outsider and experiencing prejudices that Bullard faced during his life. The audience is encouraged to think of the story beyond and how the themes raised still resonate today than it did 100 years ago or so.
Bailey gives a well delivered performance and there is incredible and innovative use of digital technology and projection for its storytelling and how they re-imagine it with theatre. All Blood Runs Red is no exception to this