Dundee Rep
4 stars
It’s not every show that finds its cast serving square crisps to the
audience as they enter a noisy auditorium that has a full band set-up
gracing a mocked-up pub function room venue. Yet that’s exactly how
disabled company Graeae launch into their Ian Dury inspired musical,
co-produced with the New Wolsey Theatre, which goes for a full-pelt
recreation of the spit and sawdust aesthetic that existed before
Lloyd-Webberisation turned everything into soulless cash cow spectacle.
At one point there’s even a cheeky nod to Mamma Mia, a show with
similar fringe roots as this 1979-set yarn about die-hard Dury-ites
Vinnie and Colin, who singularly fail to get to see their idol in
residence at Hammersmith Odeon during the height of his chart success.
Taking in attitudes to death, sex, prejudice and low-rent ambition
during the early days of Thatcherism, Paul Sirett’s script may look
simple, but, as with Dury’s lyrics, which are beamed out on
back-projections like back-issues of Smash Hits, there are hidden
depths that go beyond soap opera nostalgia. These are heightened in
Jenny Sealey’s raucous, ribald and unashamedly libidinous production,
which allows its thirteen cast members including a six-strong band to
vamp things up like nobody’s business.
If John Kelly and Garry Robson sound like dead ringers for Dury during
the songs, Nadia Albina makes for a vivaciously sparky love interest
for Stephen Lloyd’s Vinnie in a show that’s a joy to behold. Watching
Dury’s paean to hedonism, Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, transformed
into a twenty-first century dancing in the aisles anthem may be
unlikely, but as subversive call-to-arms gestures go, the streetwise
spirit of genuine popular theatre lives on.
The Herald, March 22 2012
ends
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