Peaky Blinders may have ended on TV but there's a new dance version of the hit BBC series and it's currently being played out on the Welsh stage. The performance, which has toured to the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, starts with the anti-hero, First World War army tunneler Thomas Shelby, immersed in the horrors of the Great War as he, his companions - dead inside but still walking - and family carve out their places in the ganglands of 1920s Midlands.
The theatricality from Rambert’s Artistic Director, Benoit Swan Pouffer, and Peaky Blinders writer, Steven Knight, is stunning. The Moi Tran designed stage allows for multi levels of activity, including a trench that continues the theme of the war throughout the show, as bodies fall into it, dancers glide along it, and rise from it – all wonderful.
Add strobe lighting and pyrotechnics to create the industrial heartland, and seamless scene changes from opium dens to speakeasys, factories to a fairground and racecourse.
Read more: First look inside Wales Millennium Centre's new inclusive cabaret bar
The characters are dressed by costume designer Richard Gellar with a combination of the now iconic capped chaps and the equally distinctive women’s outfits to flapper age dancing girls, spivs, squaddies, and factory workers.
Thomas Shelby, played by Joseph Kudra, swaggers as he cuts his way to the top of the dark side of town until tragedy reduces him to a drug destroyed wreck.
The show belongs both to the dancers, Kudra in the title role, a lithe Seren Williams as the oh so seductive Grace, powerful women Caiti Carpenter as Polly to name just some, and the band. They play a combination of creations from composer Roman Gianarthur, heavily rhythmic guitar, strong percussion, and wonderfully evocative singing.
We also have songs from Radiohead, Anna Calvi, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Nick Cave. Caps off to Yaron Engler, James Douglas and The Last Morrell. Along the way we have a sort of narration from Birmingham’s dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby from Rambert Dance is at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff until Saturday, March 25.
Read next:
Disney's Aladdin is Wales Millennium Centre's 2023 Christmas show and here's how to get tickets
'Best New Musical' Heathers The Musical is coming to Cardiff in 2023
The beloved Welsh theatre company that produced one of Wales' hottest talents
Black Sheep, West Pizza, Gaucho and all the Cardiff restaurants and cafes opening this spring
