Constant threat of menace
Constant threat of menace
Rambert's Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby | Wirral Society of Arts 75th anniversary show | 3 exhibitions worth travelling to | Latest North West arts news
I spent a lovely couple of hours yesterday at Mayer Hall in Bebington, Wirral, judging the Wirral Society of Arts 75th anniversary exhibition alongside Joe McGillivray, former Head of the Art School at Wirral Met. It was a treat to take the time to really study the exhibits in detail, and to discuss them with someone who really knows about painting.
With so many high quality works on display, it was a difficult task to award just nine artists with a cash prize, but we managed to come to an agreement. One of the top three prizes went to Rob Symington for this self-portrait, which leaped out as I scanned my eyes along the gallery wall. Not only is it beautifully painted, but I felt as if I knew the man in the image just from how he was depicted.
The building’s owners have exciting plans to turn Mayer Hall into an arts centre so watch this space for more details of that. In the meantime, the WSA exhibition is open until October 13 (more details here) and is showing work of a wide range of styles and media. I would definitely recommend taking a look. And if you have a space on your wall that needs filling, all the pieces are for sale.
Rambert captures the Peaky Blinders edge of menace and sense of style ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Do you need to binge watch all six series of Peaky Blinders to enjoy Rambert’s dance show based on the TV drama? That’s the question on the lips of many people pausing over the “book now” button as they debate whether to buy tickets.
The answer is no. In fact director and choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer’s work flies through the story so quickly - pulling out just some of the major plot points - that a recent rewatching of the series might make you focus too much on what’s missing. Condensing 36 television episodes into a two-hour stage production is a tall order, and so it’s no surprise that if The Redemption of Thomas Shelby has a weakness then the plot is it. The key scenes lack build-up. You don’t see Tommy and Grace fall in love, they just suddenly are. And within mere minutes she is “stealing his secrets” as the late Benjamin Zephaniah’s rich voiceover tells us.
But none of this much matters - and not just because with dance shows there tends to be an expectation that your imagination will fill in the gaps. It’s also because Pouffer has so perfectly captured the elements that made viewers sit up straight when the first episode of the drama about a Birmingham gangster family was aired in 2013 - the edge of menace, the slouchy but sharp sense of style and the vibrant, damaged characters you find yourself rooting for despite your real-life horror of violence.
The choreography plays with tempo to transforms nasty bar brawls into exciting dance pieces that suddenly drop into slow motion for a few seconds before rushing along again, as if an editor is tweaking a speed dial. Segments of fast-paced action contrast with a sumptuous 1920s night club scene and the dry-iced, disconcerting nightmares of Tommy’s opium-laced hallucinations.
The show opens in No Man’s Land, the soldiers performing a juddery, distorted dance as they progress slowly forward to Devil Inside Me by Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes. This is no soft-focus portrayal of heroism. It’s menacing and desperate. Tommy and his brothers survive in body, we are shown, but still return home broken.
The trench remains on stage, where the set is constructed with multiple layers. Characters drop into it unexpectedly or pop-up from inside it. Behind the main plateau, we are given glimpses of the live musicians or scenes playing out in parallel.
This is very much Tommy’s story - the clue is in the title. And it’s presented like a Greek myth, an odyssey of exploits he must get through to find redemption. Zephaniah’s voiceover is more than exposition. It’s a prose poem, relating the struggle between good and evil - and Tommy’s ultimate choice between life or death.
While the other characters don’t get much of a look-in, plot-wise at least, they are very much present. Even without their familiar clothing, you would be able to recognise them from the way they move. Other than Tommy (Conor Kerrigan), the women pull focus away from the men. Simone Damburg Würtz as Polly is straight-backed, proud and fierce; Adél Bálint as Ada is softer but no less determined. Grace seems viewed through Tommy’s eyes - an archetype of beauty, elegance and her namesake trait.
Does The Redemption of Tommy Shelby stand up as a work on its own? Yes, you could definitely follow most of the story and enjoy the characterisation and edgy choreography without knowing the TV show. But the love story is not just between Tommy and Grace, it’s also between Pouffer and the original version, and that adds an element that you’d miss if you weren’t familiar with its source.
Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby closes at the Liverpool Empire today, with performances at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. It is touring to The Lowry, Salford, from October 22-26.
Latest arts news
🗣️ The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool will host a major exhibition bringing together work by nearly 50 leading Black women and non-binary artists who are transforming contemporary British art today. Conversations, the first exhibition of its kind to be held in a national art gallery in the UK, will run from October 19 to March 9, 2025.
🏙️ Manchester has revealed its cultural strategy for the next decade: Always, Everywhere: Manchester's Cultural Ambition 2024 - 2034. Shaped by conversations with local people living and working in the city, as well as input from cultural organisations and creatives, it aims to give “everyone across Manchester the opportunity to enjoy and participate in culture and the arts”.
🛀 Artists from Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts programme with learning disabled and neurodivergent adults, have collaborated on a new advent calendar design, window installation and celebration event at the LUSH Liverpool store. LUSH Liverpool takeover with Blue Room and Friends, part of the Neurodiversity Arts Festival (read more about that here), takes place on Sunday, September 29, 11am-4pm. It’s free, just drop in.
☘️ An Irish Season of Drama is being shown in the Garrick Altrincham’s Studio Theatre. Productions are The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, A Man of No Importance by Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, Little Gem by Elaine Murphy and Translations By Brian Friel.
📼 FACT in Liverpool is taking its pop-up Cinema in the City to VideOdyssey in Toxteth - one of the UK’s last remaining video rental shops. Three coming-of-age double features that shaped youth culture in the 1990s will be screened from an original ex-rental VHS videotape. They are: Pump Up The Volume (1990) and Kicking and Screaming (1995) on Friday, October 25, Juice (1992) and Boyz N The Hood (1991) on Saturday, October 26, and Show Me Love (1998) and But I’m A Cheerleader (1999) on Sunday, October 27.
In case you missed it
3 exhibitions worth travelling to
For those with itchy feet, here are three exhibitions outside the North West that you won’t want to miss.
Liz West: Our Colour Reflection, Yorkshire Sculpture Park: This winter, YSP’s 18th century Chapel will be transformed into a joyful display of colour and light by artist Liz West. Our Colour Reflection is an immersive artwork made up of hundreds of mirrored discs in 15 vivid colours that will carpet the Chapel’s main space. It will launch during Wakefield’s Our Year Light Up festival (November 15-17) and close on January 5.
Frankie Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works, Baltic, Gateshead: The first major retrospective exhibition of Salford-born feminist, activist, social documentary photographer Franki Raffles (1955–1994). The exhibition concentrates on her astonishing creative output over a period of 10 years from 1984–94 when she produced around 40,000 images, addressing issues including inequality, gendered violence, disability, activism and sisterhood. Until March 16, 2025.
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, The National Gallery, London: If you enjoyed the recent Beyond Van Gogh immersive experience at Exhibition Centre Liverpool, then what could be better than seeing his works in real life. This show brings together some of Van Gogh’s most-loved paintings from across the globe, paired with his drawings. They include See up-close his Starry Night over the Rhône from Musée d’Orsay and The Yellow House from the Van Gogh Museum. It runs until January 19, 2025.
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I’m off now to paint my daughter’s bedroom. Tempted to try creating a Starry Night mural on the wall - but with my painting skills I’m definitely better off writing about art than producing it. In the meantime, you can get hold of me on Instagram, in the comments or by replying to this email.
Have a great week,
Laura