Dancing that appeared inhuman, and bodies contorted as if possessed
Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is currently touring around the UK and parts of Europe until August 2025. It is being performed at the New Theatre, Oxford from the 15-19th October. The show is a dance adaptation of the BBC series that has been choreographed by the insanely talented, Benoit Swan Pouffer. Rambert School of Dance initially explored classical ballet but then evolved into many other different dance styles including hip hop and more abstract dance forms. The companies training and work is located in the South Bank area in London. It is a breeding group of intensive and groundbreaking training that is developed into large scale touring productions. Themes that the play looks into include gang violence, grief, war and community. It tells the story of Thomas Shelby, the leader of the Peaky Blinders (a Birmingham based gang), who takes control of Birmingham in 1919 through violence and child trafficking. It was a deeply moving and thought-provoking piece of theatre. With huge dance numbers and a brilliant live band this show is not one to be missed.
The set was incredible. It catered for every need of the show in the most creative way imaginable. With the band onstage you became completely immersed and locked into the story. This was accompanied by the lighting design that involved back-lit performers and spotlights to enhance the darkness of the performance. Smoke machines were used continually and it added an edge of eeriness and suspense to the acting aspects. You would think that because of the lack of dialogue it would be hard to follow but this only provoked a deeper expression of emotion through the dancers’ body language and attack to the choreography. There was lots of dancing that felt inhuman and possessed which was really impressive to watch. They were able to contort their bodies to appear almost dead.
Most of the performers were dancing in complex costumes that could be seen as restrictive but still they danced flawlessly and had really cool costumes on. The soundtrack that was used had lots of well-known artists such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Radiohead and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with the theme tune “Red Right Hand” from the BBC Series. Recorded snippets of Benjamin Zephaniah’s voice was used as a voice over telling the story and it was really effective having simple dialogue recorded to flow through the performance.
From the beginning it was evident that the cast was the best of the best. The story was easy to follow and portrayed in such an interesting and clever way through the choreography. The chemistry between Thomas Shelby (Conor Kerrigan) and Grace (Naya Lovell) was so strong and evident in the blindfolded dance which was mind blowing and full of lifts and choreography that required absolute trust between each other. The lighting choice for the bar/club scene was really cool with purples and yellows creating an intense and really exciting dance to watch. This show was probably one of the most powerful and profound pieces of theatre I have watched in a long time so catch it while you still can at the New Theatre showing from now until Saturday 19th October.