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Slums’ musical mob
THE HARDER THEY COME
Barbican
THE Harder They Come made Jimmy Cliff into a household name and catapulted a number of Jamaican musicians into a global market.
It is the story of how a mob rules the Kingston slums, of the power of entrenched interests against individuals trying to make a living and, of course, how love should conquer all, but seldom does.
The hero is “country boy” Ivan, who tells the audience in the opening scene of how he wants water from a pipe instead of “...from a jug carried three miles through the countryside”, a cooker to warm his food on instead of “a fire made of sticks and a pot on a stone” and a simple roof over his head.
He heads to the city to seek his fortune armed only with some tunes running round his head. But faced with studio bosses trying to rip him off, corrupt police officers and the dope dealers he tried to work with to raise capital to fund his music dream, Ivan finds a world that does not want him to succeed.
The film, made in the 1970s, transfers well. Put together by the Theatre Royal Stratford, where it enjoyed a successful two season run, it loses nothing in the larger auditorium of the Barbican.
This is partly because of a powerful performance from leading lady Joanna Francis as Ivan’s innocent love interest Elsa. From the opening moment when she bursts into a gospel number, you are pegged back in your seat by the sheer force of her voice and the intricate harmonies of the spiritual songs pouring from the stage.
Police chief Ray Pierre (Chris Tummings) had the daunting task of singing the Toots and the Maytals song Pressure Drop. Turning the lights on the audience and interrogating them provoked a deluge of heckles, but he dealt with it so well it felt those giving him gip from row H must have been placed there by the director.
The only moments where it wobbled was leading man Rolan Bell’s occasional inability to project the songs: they are hard for the male voice, requiring power at a high pitch – a trick only the likes of Desmond Dekker could pull off. The show ends with the band skanking through the shows tunes. The crowd grooved along, but not in one of those forced, let’s clap with the cast, kind of ways which is so cringeing.
Until April 5
CNJ Booking line 0870 040 0070 |
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