One of the only benefits of this lockdown has been the wealth and breadth of theatre productions being streamed online and York-based Pilot Theatre Company have not disappointed by bringing their offering of live theatre to your home. Pilot are renowned for their theatre for young people and their recent partnerships with Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Derby Theatre and their own York Theatre Royal, have signed a four production deal. Crongton Knights is the second production of this partnership, closely following the success of their 2019 Noughts And Crosses. . .which I’m hoping they’ll stream soon.
Crongton Knights follows the story of a bunch of teenagers growing up, in the present day, on the fictional working class estate of Crongton (which happens to be extremely ‘street’). One of the girls from the gang has accidentally left her mobile phone with a boy from a gang on another estate. The mobile phone has some intimate pictures which she must get back and the story unfolds as her friends risk life and limb to help her retrieve them.
The cast of nine were wonderful performers with high energy, fantastic characterisation and superbly talented in the art of beatboxing. They created a sense of relevance to this story for young people that, at times, I felt alienated from as an adult. Stand out performances for me were from Aimee Powell in the role of Venetia, whose phone is at the centre of the story and her lively friend Mckay, played by Olisa Odele.
The play has real energy and is definitely aimed at contemporary young people through the themes of gangs, social media and knife crime, which are all at the forefront of the narrative. The musical interludes are full of beatboxing and soulful songs composed by Conrad Murray and the movement direction of Corey Campbell and Esther Richardson, brings the energy into this fast-paced performance to life. However, despite all this positivity, I found myself struggling to keep up. Maybe it was the fast pace, maybe it was the delivery of the plot through beatboxing but I found myself confused at times, with who was who and what was going on. Inevitably, something is always lost when you watch a production on screen instead of live on stage and I really felt this with this production. The aesthetically pleasing set design by Simon Kenny was a large rotating cube with steps and railings, covered in graffiti creating the estate ‘feel’ but it moved the action from one house to another, then to an estate and an exterior scene and caused more confusion than the beatboxing!
Having felt that this wasn’t aimed at me, I asked my 14 year old daughter to watch it with me. She attends a community comprehensive school which isn’t inner city but isn’t Cheltenham Ladies’ College either. Her reaction was that no-one that she has ever heard speaks like the characters in this play, and that it was just as inaccessible to her as it was to me. So it is unarguably a piece of theatre for young adults but I’m not sure if this piece of theatre is too niche for its own good. If you’re not young, street and can understand the lingo, I think this is a really tough piece to follow . . .that said, if you are all of the above, its great! Crongton Knights is available to stream until Saturday 9th May 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL2DIlzz73w
Reviewer - Johanna Hassouna-Smith
on - 4/5/20
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