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Review: Boy Blue Presents: Pied Piper at the Barbican (December)
Boy Blue Entertainment’s Olivier Award winning masterpiece, Pied Piper returned to the Barbican last week after a nine month hiatus since it toured the UK in March
Words: AJ, David Barros
Photography: Elliot Franks, Robert Day
Boy Blue Entertainment’s Olivier Award winning show, Pied Piper, is entertaining to watch from beginning to end. With its diverse dance styles, athleticism and acrobatics the action doesn’t let up.
The original tale of the Pied Piper tells the story of a village plagued by rats whose people call upon a mysterious piper to rid them from their problem. In this instance, the rats are gangs of hooded youths – ASBOs. The show opens to the ASBOs causing mayhem and fear in the cities and backstreets (pictured above). The ASBO’s movement was very animalistic and vermin like, a core theme throughout the show.
The action cuts to a newsflash about how street crime is out of control and how hoodies are to blame – a satirical look at the way tabloid headlines exaggerate the facts and blame today’s youth by the clothing they wear.
Clueless, stone-
The next four scenes are a flashback of the Piper’s CV for ridding cities of their antisocial problems, portrayed as posses of different vermin.
This is where the animalistic themes reappear, as we see the Piper battle with Mosquitoes
– cleverly portrayed with white gloves in black light, b-
The Piper rids the cities of their vermin through battling them in the same style.
Choreographically, each vermin is portrayed by the way they move, dress and act.
The battles between the Piper and the Vampire Bats are impressively showy, with lots
of flips, while the Vipers are slow-
The Governors are so impressed with the Piper and his abilities they offer him a fortune to rid their city of the ASBOs. Tempted by their generous offer, the Piper agrees to help and gets to work.
The battle that ensues between the ASBOs and the Piper is epic. A single person versus an entire stage full of other performers looks very intimidating. The choreography at this point is incredible. At all times, dancers are moving and doing something, no one is just standing around watching. The line changes and group switches flow perfectly while the soundtrack is tailored perfectly to the action.
Choreographing complex fight scenes through dancing must have been very difficult, however Boy Blue pull it off with ease and style, as Kenrick barely bats an eyelid flooring his opponents.
Since March’s run of Pied Piper there have been subtle changes to the show. There
are some new additions to the cast, with more acrobatic flips than before, and the
Middle-
My only criticism of Pied Piper is that it ended quite abruptly and others around me were asking “Is that it?” However, Pied Piper is most definitely worth seeing. It is a great modern portrayal of Robert Browning’s poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin with an edgy, satirical twist set to modern music.
Poised: Ready to attack with the spirit of a scorpion
Section:
Hip hop theatre (under construction)
Watch the trailer for Boy Blue Presents Pied Piper:
Related links:
Related features:
We’re Excited About Pied Piper and Into The Hoods
Review: Boy Blue Presents: Pied Piper (March)