Councillor Liz Clements cried final Tuesday as she talked concerning the prospect of Birmingham metropolis council’s tradition price range being worn out as a part of its plan to avoid wasting £300m over two years. Birmingham Rep is ready for the approaching shocks. Lately, the theatre has developed sturdy relations with producers, at dwelling and overseas, that allow it to current a richly assorted, audience-engaging programme.
Bhangra Nation is one such co-production. Massive, shiny, bouncy and bursting with sufficient power to propel it throughout the Atlantic, this dance-centred, coming-of-age musical, first introduced in San Diego in 2022, has been reworked particularly for its UK premiere by the unique inventive workforce, together with Rehana Lew Mirza and Mike Lew (co-authors of the e book), Sam Willmott (music and lyrics) and Stafford Arima (director).
The storyline is paint-by-numbers easy. East Lansing College’s bhangra dance workforce is torn aside when two members conflict over efficiency types. Mary (Jena Pandya) needs to include Indian kathak dance strikes, in honour of her late mom. Preeti (Zaynah Ahmed), whose household is from the Punjab, the place bhangra originated as a part of harvest celebrations, is dismayed that the workforce already mixes in hip-hop and Bollywood; she needs to respect the authenticity of the shape. Mary units up a breakaway workforce, made up of a various group of people that really feel they don’t slot in.
What brings the motion to superb life is the best way the 2 women’ cultural id crises are given expression by means of dance and music. In case you consider the e book as an over-structured scaffolding for an explosive exploration of the cross-cultural historical past of bhangra, this can be a really terrific present – fantastically introduced and delivered. Choreography by Rujuta Vaidya (with further choreography and musical staging, right here, from Rebecca Howell) seamlessly shuffles, shuttles and interweaves conventional and fashionable, Asian and American types, embodying by means of motion the ethical of the piece, delivered by movie star, dance instructor and restaurateur Rekha (Sohm Kapila): “You’ll be able to’t go ahead if you end up trying again!”
