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Spicy success on tail of Kat
SPICE DRUM BEAT
Tricycle Theatre
HOW do you follow a monster success like Kat and the Kings?
Even as I write, all the words to all the songs from that amazing show are running through my head from multiple plays of the original soundtrack.
I remember being overwhelmed by it and not in the least surprised when it won a clutch of Oliviers.
One is therefore always waiting for the next Kat. However writers David Kramer and Taliep Peterson have wisely chosen not to exploit us fans with a copy Kat (pardon the pun) and opted for this historical meander through the origins and influences on the music of Cape Town’s diverse racial melting pot that is District Six.
It is rather too earnest in places, with an occasionally maudlin emphasis on chains and injustice. The music is much more African than Kat, drawing on a variety of traditions such as negro spirituals and languages including Dutch, Afrikaans and English.
I really enjoyed the cast. Olivier award-winner Jody Abrahams, last seen swinging from the Tricycle’s rafters in Kat, is comic, bold and effective. Loukmaan Adams and Munthir Dullisear are also impressive male leads. Narrating charmingly around the themes of food and music are the equally impressive Zenobia Kloppers and Carmen Maarman, Maarman being particularly attractive with a relaxed rhythmic style and expansive smile.
There was one ingenious scene with puppets that I won’t give away but was the climax of a livelier second half.
However, although entertaining, this has the homespun feeling of a very good educational production that might have been designed to make the complexities of colonialism palatable to grumpy teenagers but, alas, not a great deal else.
Until Dec 24
020 7328 1000 |
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