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Review: Zoonation: “Into The Hoods” at the Southbank Centre

Zoonation’s “Hip Hop Fairytale” is the alternative to going to the pantomime this Christmas, but its street dance take on a popular musical doesn’t measure up to some previous hip hop theatre...

Words: David Barros

Photography: Southbank Press

Zoonation's Into The Hoods at the Southbank Centre

A week into its run and it had already received a standing ovation each night. With a host of awards under its belt, Zoonation's hip hop theatre production has moved the Ruff Endz Estate to a new neighbourhood at the Southbank Centre.

Two school children catch the wrong bus and up in the wrong part of town. Lost, they are found by the estate's Landlord who will pay their fare home if they can find him four birthday presents for his beloved daughter, Rap-On-Zel: an iPod as white as white as milk, a hoodie as red as blood, a weave as yellow as corn and trainers as pure as gold.

On the same estate lives local DJ, Spinderella, lady's man, Prince, dodgy record label owner Wolf, and Jaxx, who lives in the basement. And they all live in the hood...

So what's new? The lead roles are still the same for this year's show (we had an understudy for Lil Red on the night of reviewing), although the ensemble has a few new faces. But there's something about moving Into The Hoods to the Southbank Centre has taken a tiny ounce of its spirit away. They've cut out the interval to make it one long performance and they've cut the prerecorded live videos and replaced them with animated shorts. I guess it helps when understudies play the schoolchildren, by why tinker with a winning formula.

From the opening it takes a while for it to get into the story, and during the introduction routines some of the dancers looked slightly out of sync. For a group who performed at Nelson Mandela’s birthday (see box, right), off-beat dancers should have been cut from those routines instead of looking under rehearsed on the night.

Luckily the dancers warmed up after an impromptu freestyle outside the Ruff Endz estate, a bustling urban moment where the characters all meet one other. Breaking, locking and street styles all present, and the school children are able to throw down in a circle too, as Prince goes about inviting everyone to his party.

And what a party Prince throws. Featuring the ensemble there's plenty of action to look at and they manage to squeeze lots of dance styles. This is one of the show's best moments, but strays off the path of it being a street dance show in place of showing off the cast's classical training in different styles.

Visually there's plenty here to please the audience. The projected back wall still looks as innovative as ever, used for video transitions between scenes and as a display for scene backdrops, which also cleverly conceal stage entrances. One of the best scenes using this in the show is a perspective-bending fight overlooking the side of a building.

It's moments like that which really make you enjoy the show. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments you don't expect: Fairy G, a tiny girl in a tracksuit with a lot of swagger has the audience in fits with her diva attitude, and a slow-motion action replay fight with Jaxx for his iPod. Although for a show which has a pantomime-ish qualities, showing over the Christmas period, they could have taken a little more advantage of them.

Zoonation's Into The Hoods at the Southbank Centre

Zoonation put a lot of thought into how they wanted to execute Into The Hoods, and the theatricals are done very well, although over a year since its last showing some of the gags need updating to keep it relevant.

It’s had three runs to continue to better itself, we were hoping it would give better value after learning what works and revising it appropriately.

If it’s your first time seeing it you’ll love it (if you’re bringing children ignore the fact the characters include drug dealers, two-timing ‘playas’ and other clichés: it’s a family show), but for returning audience there needs to more fresh material to keep it ahead of the competition.

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Section:

Hip hop theatre (under construction)

Watch the trailer for Zoonation: Into The Hoods:

Zoonation perform at Nelson Mandela’s birthday: