★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

Writer, composer, director, choreographer and producer, Romain Rachline Borgeaud is the force behind RB Dance Company. Formed in 2018, the aim was to mix tap dancing with urban jazz, bringing the former to a ‘darker, more grounded, heavier place’. Borgeaud fell in love with Gene Kelly when he was a young child, citing him as the reason he started dancing. His passion for movement and music drove him to take the art form and fearlessly experiment, but at the same time paying tribute to traditional musical theatre. “Stories” was born, parts of its early inception making their way into the finals of France Has Got Talent (“La France a un Incroyable Talent”).

The mix of traditional tap with modern street jazz, urban music and rap has produced a simply stunning and sensational fusion. Thrown into the mix are production values that tip the scales. A synchronicity with lighting, sound, percussion and music stirs in its precision as well as its emotional punch. “STORIES – was born from a gathering – that of a pack driven by a persistent, vibrating, visceral need to move” writes Borgeaud in the slightly esoteric programme notes for the show. But while the performers are moving, we are motionless, rapt and frozen in our seats almost afraid to blink.

The show is not just a dance piece. Yet it isn’t musical theatre. It is cinematic in its scope but intimate in its language. The story follows Icarus – a young actor – under the oppressive control of his director. He’s desperate to escape, but unable to. There are obvious parallels with the Greek myth of Icarus, with the director being a Minos figure. The narrative follows an equally labyrinthian arc that is sometimes hard to unravel, but the beauty is that the interpretation belongs to us. There are references to Faust too, but also a strong link to the feelgood, golden age of the nineteen-fifties and the likes of ‘Guys and Dolls’. All coated with a fine glossy veneer of Film Noir.

It is all brilliantly told and despite being written, directed, choreographed and scored by the one man, there is a clear-cut collaborative feel. Loosely split into four segments: ‘Run’, ‘Stop’, ‘Fall’ and ‘Rise’, it is seamless throughout. Without pause, the coordination never misses a beat or steps out of line. Alex Hardellet’s lighting is an essential part of the choreography – the virtuosity of a concert pianist is required to operate the cues at the desk! Federica Mugnai’s constantly changing set designs are as intricately woven into the staging, at times flowing to the rhythm like big-budget CGI transitions. The trust between performers and creatives is an unbreakable bond. But moreover, the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins.

Tap dance as you have never seen before, brought high-kicking right into the twenty-first century. “Stories” is cross generational – modern but steeped in traditional virtuosity. It has its own vocabulary, yet there are no words. Instead, the emotional fragments of the story are swept up into a breathtaking music and dance spectacle. After seventy-five minutes we are quite breathless but would gladly continue watching for another seventy-five. Unmissable. In short, ‘incroyable’.

THE FORSYTE SAGA at Park Theatre

★★★★★

“flawlessly executed under Josh Roche’s stylish direction that adds a unique clarity to the sweeping story”

John Galsworthy’s “The Forsyte Saga” earned him the Nobel Prize for literature. Its epic chronicle of the leading members of an extended upper-middle-class Victorian family has understandably been adapted many times for cinema and television. It is a brave undertaking to adapt the extensive series of novels for the stage, especially for a society that, a century later, will undoubtedly balk at the societal norms embedded in the period. Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan have woven together the various strands of the story into a truly magnificent two-part stage play that presents the full meaning and intention of Galsworthy’s original with aesthetic truthfulness. While also allowing it to resonate with a thoroughly modern audience and still be relevant to the way we live our lives now.

First things first: the logistics. The two parts of the play are showing in rep. “Part 1: Irene” and “Part 2: Fleur”. On select days both parts can be seen back-to-back. The programme notes express the hope that ‘each play stands alone, but the experience is far richer if you see both’. More than a clever marketing ploy, the statement is partly true. Yes, they do stand alone (Part 1 more so than Part 2), but it’s not just a far richer experience – it is absolutely essential to see both. For the simple reason that they are both unmissable. What’s more – view them in the correct order. It’s a bit of a marathon coming in collectively at just under five hours, but every moment counts. The shift in the dynamics of the second part involves more investment from the audience, but the whole effect is one of a four act play rather than two independent two-act pieces (you’ll have a couple of hours in between so check out the delicious pizza they serve in the bar).

“The Forsyte Saga” is a male dominated story, yet from the outset this is subverted. The women are very much at its heart here. Pumping that heart is Fleur, played with a subversive passion by Flora Spencer-Longhurst. She introduces, narrates and guides us through the generations – initially the ghost of what is yet to come, but as the events catch up with her, she steps fully into the story. The device is flawlessly executed under Josh Roche’s stylish direction that adds a unique clarity to the sweeping story. Scenes overlap, and with little more than a turn of the head we are transported to a different time and location. Anna Yates’ set consists of nothing but a plush red carpet and matching velvet curtains that draw back to reveal the plain brickwork of the playing space. The vivid picture that the performers plant in our imaginations with such conviction ensures that the bare wall becomes a country house, the rolling countryside, a ballroom, a city street, the riverside… well, you get the picture.

Having got to grips with the multiplicity of characters, the main action follows Soames Forsyte (Joseph Millson). His newly acquired wealth and status give him a self-imposed right to want to own everything he sees, including his wife Irene (Fiona Hampton). Millson drags his character deeper and deeper into this delusional obsession with a remarkable performance that ultimately grabs our sympathy by the throat. Irene consistently gains the upper hand, resisting Soames’ grasping intention, and Hampton brilliantly draws us into her world of male entitlement that she refuses to submit to. The domesticity swiftly becomes uncomfortable to watch (remember that marital rape only became illegal in 1992). Yet everybody is a victim in their own way. Andy Rush as the tragic love interest of Irene encapsulates the snowballing effect of action and reaction.

Most of the cast multi-roll, and as the period shifts from the late nineteenth century to the nineteen-twenties in Part 2, the aging of the characters is passed on to other members of the company with a smoothness of transition that puts Doctor Who’s regenerations to shame. At times it is hard to reconcile the mind to the fact that only nine actors are portraying such a vast league of gentlemen and ladies. I would love to highlight each performance just as I would like to lay out each of the plot twists and turns, but in the interests of column-inches, I will instead simply urge you to discover it for yourself.

Except to say, though, that Spencer-Longhurst’s performance is the cornerstone. Barely offstage for five hours, her journey is epically moving. The daughter of Soames, she is a woman ahead of her time, childlike and mischievous but ultimately unable to escape her father’s gene pool. Forbidden love thwarted; she settles for Michael Mont (Jamie Wilkes in fine form as an escapee from P.G. Wodehouse). However, her love still lies with her cousin Jon (Andy Rush – unrecognisable from his other ill-fated characters). Here Spencer-Longhurst pulls out all the stops of her versatility as she crumples into a carbon copy of her father, with a desire to repossess Jon that borders on obsession and selfishness. The past is uncovered and tragically recycled. Roche’s staging again employs remarkable devices to enhance the poignancy, with Alex Musgrave’s lighting steering us towards a strikingly emotive climax. Likewise, Max Pappenheim’s compositions and sound design echo the journey made through time and through the characters’ swooping arcs.

We have travelled from 1886 to 1927 in the course of an afternoon and evening. Two plays, two generations. One company. To describe it as a period drama is a disservice. It crosses all ages. Within the Forsyte dynasty we see how each generation is the product of its time, but also the product of its predecessors. Watching it in 2024 we also get a sense of that indestructible link to our ancestors. We may like to think it is broken, but splinters still pierce the skin of our modern-day vulnerabilities. McKenna and Coghlan have skilfully and powerfully transposed an outdated and convoluted storyline into a modern and intimate theatre, finding both humour in the humourless and pathos in the unforgiving. In the hands of the excellent ensemble cast, it is a must see. You could get by on seeing just ‘Part 1: Irene’, or ‘Part 2: Fleur’. But don’t settle for merely ‘getting by’. Indulge yourself in the whole saga.

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd October 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Aline Gérard

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

Stories

Stories

THE FORSYTE SAGA at Park Theatre

★★★★★

“flawlessly executed under Josh Roche’s stylish direction that adds a unique clarity to the sweeping story”

THE FORSYTE SAGA at Park Theatre

Reviewed on 19th October 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Mitzi De Margary

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE FORSYTE SAGA

THE FORSYTE SAGA