Peaky Blinders Archives - North West End UK

18Sep

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Peaky Blinders – Liverpool Empire

The Global sensation of Steven Knight’s’ Peaky Blinders took TV audiences by storm and not surprisingly, there would be a stage version to follow but it is very rare for a ballet to be developed from such a show. Rambert Dance rose to the challenge of taking on this iconic drama. Its violent, brutal physicality lending itself to the dance-form incredibly well. Director/ choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer creates such a powerful, visual feast for our senses, we are mesmerized from the first moment. The eighteen strong ensemble bring alive not only the story but the emotion of Shelby’s redemption to a soundtrack that feels it actually gets inside you. Audiences will be familiar with songs from the TV show like ‘Red Right Hand’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but ...

24May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Peaky Blinders – Birmingham Hippodrome

Ballet Rambert play a Peaky Blinder Full Disclosure: I’ve never seen the TV show “Peaky Blinders” Fuller Disclosure: After this stunning, definitive version I don’t want to. With all the visceral violence of its leading characters, this ballet stomps into town, kicks open the door and makes itself at home before you can even say, “Come in.” It throws us against the wall, blows smoke in our face and threatens to rob us blind - and we love. As any Brummie worth their pork scratchings will tell you, Stephen Knight’s TV show was wrought in the Midlands and forged in the land which once produced half the world’s consumption of iron products. The ballet starts with anvils and chains and literal sparks flying as our anti-heroes emerge battered, bruised and bewildered from the fetid tr...

Peaky Blinders – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

2Mar

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Peaky Blinders – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Attention to detail is powerful and Rambert hits the right note from the get-go. Ushers dressed in waistcoats and peaked caps direct the audience. The request to turn off your mobile could be termed menacing. Even the coasters for your interval drink remind you the venue is under new management by order of the Peaky Blinders - the now famous fictional Shelby family, created by Steven Kinght, CBE, who claw their way up from street hoodlums to legitimate business owners in early twentieth century Birmingham. The special effects (Filipe J Carvalho), especially the burning barge are bold, unapologetic, theatrical: awesome. And so apt. Peaky Blinders wins at story-telling because it’s “in your face” yet the brushstrokes of anguish and wounds that seep from the past into the present are...

1Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Peaky Blinders – Hull New Theatre

Period crime drama, Peaky Blinders, wowed TV audiences from 2013 to 2022. And now a Rambert Dance production of the same name, is wowing theatre audiences nationwide. On Tuesday evening, Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby came to Hull New Theatre, and from "curtain up" it was action all the way. The Peaky refers to a popular style of flat cap, and the Blinders is common slang for someone well-dressed and dapper. I spotted quite a few theatregoers sporting a Peaky and very dapper they all looked, too. The unbelievably atmospheric opening stage setting took us straight to the trenches of Flanders, during the First World War, with dramatic scenes from which emerged five young men - alive, but dead inside from the horrors they had witnessed and taken part in. Fast-forw...