Between the Lines by James Meteyard & Jammz. The New Diorama Theatre, 15 Triton Street, London NW1 to 01 June 2024.

3✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“Dazzling to look at, hard to understand at times but always impressive.”

A terrific set, even if crammed into the relatively small stage space of the New Diorama, and equally impressive performances from the cast headed by Andrew Brown as Hughbert, the Windrush generation patriarch of this pirate radio world in Hackney make for an exciting, stimulating if occasionally impossible to understand evening. The music is great, but it is not always possible to understand just what they are saying – there is nothing wrong with having an accent, but if ever surtitles were required this is such an evening. However, that said, when it works it works. Hughbert, who dominates the show, has a secret, which is that he is actually not registered and is facing being sent back to Jamaica. The station is eventually run by his daughter Aisha, played by Anais Lone, and we face up to the clashes between authority, the police and the makers of music – one of the boys, Pritstick, played by Marcus Reiss, gets killed, one of them Sparkz, played by Nadean Pillay gets accused of being complicit with the authorities and outlawed for a while. It covers pretty well everything from the Broadwater Farm riots, with which Hughbert has a connection, to the present day of clashes with the police and knife crime. The set consists of vast walls on to which are projected the images of tower blocks, creating a world where who knows what is going on behind all those curtains. At other times we get the cast filmed by one of them with a camera projected instead with stunning results. It is cramped, but the use made of the set means that Between the Lines is nevertheless dazzling to look at, the songs are performed with energy and the play charges headlong through the story of this community. Set designer Tina Torbey and video designer Mic Pool have worked wonders. On press night it was obvious, however, that while a large chunk of the audience understood every word, and from time to time joined in responding to what the actors were saying, but not all did. It is an evening about death, violence, drug taking, being part of a society where you are not necessarily welcome, having to battle with authority, and just being, in the case of Hughbert, bloody minded. This Big House production is one to catch if you can, just don’t expect to understand all you hear said.

Cast

Andrew Brown – Hughbert.

Aliaano El-AH – Alpha.

Daniel Holden – Mute.

Alexander Lobo Moreno – Jason.

Aais Lone – Aisha.

Nadean Pillay – Sparkz.

Marcus Reiss - Pritstick.

Jake Walden – Stephen.

Creatives

Director – Maggie Norris.

Composer – Jammz.

Musical Director – Shemzy.

Set Designer – Tina Torbey.

Lighting Designer – Alex Forey.

Sound Designer – Jack Baxter.

Video Designer – Mic Pool.

Costume Designer – Lambdog 1066.