Powerful, punchy, poignant
Cable Street at the Marylebone Theatre remains a powerful story from start to finish. With a trifecta of families interlinked by the common theme of living in the same building on Cable Street, we are enriched with the ways each story navigates the uproar of fascism in London’s East End in 1936. Many key themes in this piece are very poignant to political events happening in today’s society, so the decision to perform to contemporary audiences was a clever use of historicization that left many audience members in shock to the levels some will go without realising who they are supporting.
The stage set up the urban atmosphere of the piece, with underlying symbolism of colour and minimalistic props that would later be multi-use in a variety of scenes. Even the colours of the doors in the flat upstage foregrounded the political views of the inhabitants, with 2 blue and the top floor being red, alluding to the fascism rise and inequality of status coherent with income or background.
The through-line of the tour of the East End was cleverly weaved in, with place markers being pointed out by the tour guide and personal familial links between tourists and those who experienced the movement allowing consistency in multi-rolling and clear storytelling. Transitions between scenes were smooth, including costume changes between characters that never seemed to phase the actors, making an even more believable switch between each personality.
The protagonists from each family were given an individual style of song to reflect their personalities. Mairead’s empowering, strong and belt-like qualities, Sammy’s being down-to-earth, rap style and patter and Ron’s almost rock-ballad influences. All members of the cast exuded professionalism, talent and triple (sometimes quadruple) “threat-ness” with actor-musician inclusion and multi-rolling with many accent changes. Stand out songs included : “No Pasaran!”, an anthem for the tenants to stand up against the BUF inspired by a similar uproar of events happening in Spain, “Only Words” a hauntingly beautiful ballad sung by Yitzhak to his son and the importance (or lack) of words and “Bread and Roses” with clever and thought-provoking lyricism. The “Read All About It” segments were particularly enjoyable, adding a layer of comedy in some often disturbing political events.
The additional use of stage combat, puppetry and poetry were all brilliantly executed and made a very enjoyable and thought-provoking experience. I hope it sends a message to the masses to listen to those who do not always get a voice.