The hoodies took over Edinburgh Festival Theatre this week as Boy Blue’s award-winning Pied Piper came to town. Offering a very 21st century spin on this age-old folk tale, the rats of Hamelin have now become ASBO-ed youths and the town officials who renege on their promise to pay the piper to clean up their streets are big-headed politicians in pin-striped suits.
Telling the story through hip-hop and street dance, the show is one thrilling piece after another, dances that work in tandem with a multimedia background of newspaper headlines and film clips that explain the aspects of the story that the dances can’t.
But it’s the staggering breakdancing solos that really bring the show to life – the lead characters make their breathtaking moves look so effortless that it’s only when the locally recruited kids, with their (understandably) amateurish dancing, come on to play the children of Hamelin that you appreciate their incredible skill. The show isn’t quite flawless – the multimedia offerings don’t always quite work and the padded-out backstory of the Pied Piper’s CV is obviously just a vehicle through which to offer more dances. But then again, losing the CV pieces would have meant missing out on the treat of the mosquito episode – performed in the dark with only luminous white gloves representing the mosquitoes – so it’s a vanity I’m certainly prepared to indulge.
Then in addition to the dancing there's deft, humorous characterisation, top-quality acting and a bespoke rap soundtrack which would merit attention just on its own. Pied Piper truly is a treat for all the senses. Highly recommended.
http://www.myspace.com/boyblueent
