Calling all ballers: KM Drew Boateng, Jason York, Marcquelle Ward and Emmanuel Akwafo. Photo credit: Helen Maybanks
Show: The Spalding Suite
Venue: The Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
Writer: Inua Ellams
Director: Benji Reid
Review by Esha Chaman
The Spalding Suite is a slick tribute to basketball which bounces between emotional lows and comedic highs, and reduces the audience to utter silence or howls of laughter over 60 minutes.
The five-strong cast bound onto the stage like the ultimate basketball boyband. Their stylish footwork in synch with the sound effects which follow their movements meticulously: the cracking of bones and the crunching and stretching of limbs.
Each baller breaks out their signature basketball move, akin to a b-boy showing off their skills and endurance, before Tom (George Bray) explains the physicality of a great basketball player and how “the perfect body is an impossible breed”. Meanwhile Matt (Marcquelle Ward) is hoisted effortlessly into the air.
The team’s seemingly invincible camaraderie is evident as they cheer each other on while shooting hoops. But tension soon tears through the team after they suffer a defeat, at the hands of beat boxer MC Zani (who plays a star-player in the opposing team), as he spits out a base-heavy tune. A frustrated Yawo (Jason York) vents his disappointment at his teammates’ poor performance, slating each one as “slow, boring, vain and stupid”.
Suddenly the light-hearted mood is deflated as Yawo is abandoned by his crew – Tom, Matt, Jay (Emmanuel Akwafo) and Archie (KM Drew Boateng). Yawo’s torment at his troubling past, involving an abusive father, is exposed as he is suspended in the air spewing out his concerns that he is “becoming who I fear”.
His team’s bond is again tested during a second play-off against beat boxer MC Zani. The game switches from being performed at a dizzying speed to keep up with the beat-box rhythm, to impressive slow motion, all assisted with a harness which lifts and spins Yawo and Matt in the air to illustrate the gravity-defying nature of basketball.
Award-winning director Benji Reid delivers a visually spectacular masterpiece, using physical theatre to create a 3D experience with a cinematic edge. Reid offers a rhythmic cocktail of music, beat boxing, physical theatre and performance poetry to illustrate the beauty of the game.
The dynamic physicality of the performance elevates the poignancy of the poetic dialogue by Inua Ellams. Ellams’ passion for the game is evident and expressed with heartfelt voracity, with contributions from fellow poets Bohdan Piasecki, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Roger Robinson, Nick Makoha and Nii Parkes. Lines such as “gravity came calling to shackle our ankles and dreams” linger in the brain.
The cast’s athleticism is to be applauded, particularly Jason York as Yawo, and Marcquelle Ward as Matt. Their movements fuse contemporary with athletic shapes, worthy of a professional basketball court.
York’s achingly emotional performance is impactful, but the standout performances are Emmanuel Akwafo as the comical Jay, whose sassy celebratory moves never fail to encourage howls of laughter, while UK Beat Boxing Champion and World Finalist MC Zani flawlessly delivers outstanding beat-box rhythms and sound effects.
The Spalding Suite gets an ‘A’ for a slam dunk effort. It takes physical theatre to new heights and scores plenty of well-deserved cheers for its rhythmic dialogue, visual effects and funky beat-box soundtrack.
The Spalding Suite is now on tour across the UK. See the full listing below.
2015 UK TOUR LISTINGS
9 May
Hip Hop Dance Summit, Pavilion Dance South West, Bournemouth
Westover Road, Bournemouth BH1 2BU
Box Office: 01202 203630
www.pdsw.org.uk
12 May
ARC, Stockton
Dovecot Street, Stockton-on-Tees TS18 1LL
Box Office: 01642 525199
arconline.co.uk
14 – 16 May
Dance Xchange, Birmingham
Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorp Street, Birmingham B5 4TB
Box Office: 0844 338 5000
www.dancexchange.org.uk
29 – 30 May
DanceEast, Ipswich
Jerwood DanceHouse, Foundry Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 1DW
Box Office: 01473 295230
www.danceeast.co.uk