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Peaky Blinders

Benoit Swan Pouffer

Rambert Dance

The Lowry, Salford

October 22-26, 2024; 2hrs 10mins


A scene from Peaky Blinders: The redemption of Thomas Shelby. All pics: Johan Persson
A scene from Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby. All pics: Johan Persson
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The Rambert company used to be famous for swirling colours and great dancing. Today it has moved

on to telling stories, in this case choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer's take on a popular TV story Peaky Blinders, created by writer Steven Knight, to recreate his vision of a World War I digger, Thomas Shelby, who transfers his talent for violence to Birmingham.

Which is a problem for a dance company. No words means they must fall back on their special movement skills - which must, in this production, be supplemented by words from rap poet Benjamin Zephaniah - who comes from Brum. Clearly, someone thought it a match made in heaven.

Does it work ? One thing that irritates me when reading some reviews is that the reviewer doesn’t always tell you what they think of the production. On one hand, this ensemble provides some wonderful moments of visual poetry. The police hunt works beautifully, integrating the music and staging with the choreographer's vision, and the superb dancing carries you away. But then you get clunky moments, when individuals are killed with a pop gun, and the mood is wrecked. So, like the curate's egg , it's good in parts.

If you like being hit over the head by a really, really loud live band playing at top volume, then this

may be for you. If you are looking for special moments then, occasionally, you will find them. If you

are looking for dancers at the top of their game then, sometimes, you will see them.

It's not fair to pick out individuals, because the show relies on the entire group. There are individuals who appear a great deal of the time: Connor Kerrigan, for example, is the major figure as Tommy Shelby, but he needs to be seen as one of the gang members. A specially violent one, yes, but at one with the others.

The quality of the show is demonstrated by its worldwide reach. After us it’s the North East, then Europe, then Turkey. Sadly I think this shows that in broadening its approach to a wider audience, the Rambert company loses some of what makes it special.


More info and tickets here



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