PEAKY BLINDERS: THE REDEMPTION OF THOMAS SHELBY

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“a mesmerising cacophony of movement”

Welcome to the show! No phones. No photos. And NO. F—ING. FIGHTING.

Thomas Shelby has survived the war and is free to do as he pleases. At least until he is pursued by the law, a woman and death itself. How will he fight back?

This dance iteration of Peaky Blinders is written by the series’ creator Steven Knight with direction and choreography by Rambert’s Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer. The story starts in Flanders, where Thomas and his brothers face the devastation of WW1 on the front lines. Pouffer’s direction is cinematic, epic and foreboding. The sound design (Moshik Kop) simultaneously pins your body to your seat and absorbs your mind into the space. A trench cracks open and soldiers drag their bodies into the light. Spotlights direct the spectator’s gaze amongst a swarm of combatting performers. Immediately you understand that the laws of physics do not apply to Rambert’s dancers. They leap and soar as if they have never been incumbered by the burden of gravity. Featuring the soundtrack from the series (musical direction by Yaron Engler), you will certainly require your red right hand to pick your jaw up from the floor. This show is grand, sexy and gives you a craving for whiskey.

The lawless Shelby brothers have returned from the war and are known as the Peaky Blinders. They are bookmakers, money launderers and occasional protectors of their fellow man. Knight’s stage adaptation focuses on the relationship between Thomas, the Peaky Blinders’ leader, and Grace – the woman with a gun who could steal more than his secrets. Narrowing the focus of the story for the purpose of translating it to dance does come with its setbacks. For fans of the series, Thomas’ life is reduced to a romantic tragedy. For those who are encountering the story for the first time, there is an obvious lack of visibility of Thomas’ brothers as the show progresses. In both cases, this unfortunately makes it difficult for the audience to feel the full emotional depth of the events transpiring onstage.

Despite this lapse in storytelling, Knight and Pouffer have done a brilliant job of capturing the mood and aesthetic that we associate with Peaky Blinders. The first act fully immerses us in Birmingham as it is experienced by the Shelby brothers. With Moi Tran’s set designs and Richard Gellar’s costumes, the world of the TV series is reimagined for the stage. Dancers become units in a production line of a factory. Carousel horses are paraded around the ring before they are mounted and raced by jockeys. Burlesque dancers take us to a nightclub. Tran’s design of the raised stage allows Pouffer to be expansive with his direction and the dancers to move on multiple plains. The result is a mesmerising cacophony of movement, made up of duets and solos that sporadically come together to create a snapshot of the ensemble.

The first act has the tenacity of a pub brawl. The second act is the tremble of aftershock. There is a significant shift in pacing. Thomas Shelby (Conor Kerrigan) is the centrepiece of the longer dance sequences, and he is at magnificent full force. There is a satisfying similitude between Thomas’ mental state and the restlessness of his movement, but his character journey feels stagnant throughout the second act. This being said, the choreography in the second act will leave you breathless, so we’ll let it slide.

Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is a beautiful and ambitious production. The show truly captures the feeling of the TV series and will transport you to the reimagined world of Peaky Blinders. Death might be coming for Thomas Shelby, but no one can come for Rambert’s dancers – they are masters of their craft.

PEAKY BLINDERS: THE REDEMPTION OF THOMAS SHELBY

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed on 6th August 2025

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by Beatrice Livet

Last ten shows reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

SINBAD THE SAILOR | ★★★★★ | July 2025

R.O.S.E. | ★★★★★ | July 2025

QUADROPHENIA, A MOD BALLET | ★★★★★ | June 2025

INSIDE GIOVANNI’S ROOM | ★★★★★ | June 2025

ALICE | ★★★★ | May 2025

BAT OUT OF HELL THE MUSICAL | ★★★★ | May 2025

SPECKY CLARK | ★★★ | May 2025

SNOW WHITE: THE SACRIFICE | ★★★★★ | April 2025

SKATEPARK | ★★★★ | April 2025

MIDNIGHT DANCER | ★★★★ | March 2025

PEAKY BLINDERS

ALiCE

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“The thrill is in the spectacle and the sheer acrobatic virtuosity of the dancers”

We first see the eponymous heroine, in Jasmin Vardimon’s dance interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s nineteenth century classic children’s novel, as a chalk animation shifting across the page of a giant book. As it reaches the edge of the page, the real-life version (Liudmila Loglisci) peeps out in wonder and trepidation before taking her first balletic steps onto the stage – or, rather, into the rabbit hole. You can understand her reticence; there is a whirlwind of activity. It appears chaotic and surreal but there is a precision to the ensemble’s movement that is a hallmark of Jasmin Vardimon MBE’s acrobatic and intense choreography.

The pages of the giant book (courtesy of Guy Bar-Amotz’ – along with Vardimon herself – inventive, slightly shabby-chic design) slowly turn, sometimes engulfing Alice, sometimes hurling her into the action. The show is split into six chapters, each representing a sequence from Carroll’s fiction, and each being a formative rite of passage for the malleable young girl. The overriding theme is that of change, particularly focusing on Alice seeking her own identity as she hits adolescence with brute force. It is an ingenious device that superimposes the fantastical elements and characters of the original story onto a very modern tale of coping with today’s socio-political minefield. Barely a word is spoken. Our understanding of the concept relies entirely on the staging, which falls into the category of physical theatre rather than dance for most of the time. It is a visual feast, accompanied by an eclectic choice of soundtrack ranging from Vivaldi to Ryuichi Sakamoto, a touch of Bach, and scratch DJ Kid Koala, among many others.

It is a touch confusing, but then that reflects the bewildering and disconcerting changes our protagonist has to go through, and how it all affects her identity. Multiple pairs of arms reach out from behind doorways, along with shadow puppet hands that paw at the evolving Alice. One of quite a few references to a predatory world, and the unwanted male attention. The message is muddied further: a part of Alice seems to enjoy this while another part is repelled. Uncertain as to which direction to turn, Alice splits into seven copies of herself as the cast dance in unison to Smokie’s much parodied, seventies hit ‘Living Next Door to Alice’.

These welcome moments of light comedy puncture the over-surreal whimsical commentary, and Vardimon works the humour into the piece with ease, so that scenes that depict physical abuse or domestic violence give way to the pleasures that can be derived from turning into an adult. Imagery and metaphor give us the inner workings of Alice’s mind while striking visual projections and scenery create the world she has stumbled into. The Cheshire Cat, a vaping caterpillar, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, are all there. Even Tweedledum and Tweedledee make an appearance, wandering from ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ into this wonderland of dance and music.

There is little emotional connection. The thrill is in the spectacle and the sheer acrobatic virtuosity of the dancers. It is often impossible to believe there are only seven in the cast. There are elements of the work of Aurélia Thiérrée, or the acclaimed performance company ‘1927’. However, comparisons do Vardimon an injustice. She is in a world – and a class – of her own, combining theatre and dance in a unique way to tell the story. Not only do we see the ways in which the world she enters changes Alice, but Vardimon also shows the ways in which the world reacts to her metamorphosis. Beautifully dreamlike and unusual, marred slightly by the jarring, yet fleeting, use of literal placards drawing focus on the issues of immigration. The message would be better served among the many others that are subtly woven into the fabric of the piece.

As Alice steps back into her two-dimensional form in the pages of the book, we come full circle. We are not sure whether Alice has escaped Wonderland unchanged or awakened. A twist in the fate of the hookah-smoking (vaping in this scenario) caterpillar gives us a clue. Clues are all we seem to get in Vardimon’s interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. But we have a wonderful time not solving them. Alice couldn’t explain herself “because I am not myself, you see”. This is a show that can be watched, without being explained, simply due to the astonishing choreography performed by masters of their craft.

PEAKY BLINDERS: THE REDEMPTION OF THOMAS SHELBY

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“a mesmerising cacophony of movement”

PEAKY BLINDERS: THE REDEMPTION OF THOMAS SHELBY

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed on 6th August 2025

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by Beatrice Livet

Last ten shows reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

PEAKY BLINDERS

PEAKY BLINDERS

PEAKY BLINDERS

ALiCE

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“The thrill is in the spectacle and the sheer acrobatic virtuosity of the dancers”

ALiCE

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd May 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Tristram Kenton

Last ten shows reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

ALiCE

ALiCE

ALiCE

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