Twenty years after its première at the Theatre Royal The Big Life—The Ska Musical is back in a new production directed by Tinuke Craig. Borrowing a plot from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Lost transposed to Windrush-era arrivals from the West Indies, it presents a picture of enthusiastic arrivals meeting the cold wind of racism but delivered with such humour and energy that it is exhilarating fun at the same time.
Like Shakespeare’s iambics, the rhythms of ska seem to match natural speech patterns and it becomes the pulse of the show, but there’s a touch of calypso too, and Paul Joseph’s score also finds room for some blues and soul sounds with a cast who not only sing their hearts out but dance Ingrid Mackinnon’s choreography with flexed knees, gyrating bodies and great verve.
On the boat as it nears “Inglan”, we meet Bernie (Nathanael Campbell) and Sybil his fiancée (Gabrielle Brooks), baker Dennis (Khalis Daley) who thinks the medal won by his brother killed while in the RAF will open doors for him, engineer Lennie (Karl Queensborough), who is an ace motor mechanic, and academic Ferdy (Ashley Samuels) who has a book he’s like to get published and a letter from a professor who said make contact if you are ever in England. There’s a preacher (Gabriel Fleary) aboard too who tries to get them praying and a guy who calls himself Admiral (Daniel Bailey) who thinks he’s God’s gift to women and can’t wait to meet them.
Bernie and Sybil have a tiff while still on the boat, and he goes along with the others when Admiral invites them to give up women and drink for three years to concentrate on hard graft and creating the Big Life for themselves in the Motherland. They all take on his bet that they can’t do without them.
When they look for somewhere to stay, its all “No dogs, no Irish no Blacks” signs, but they do find a place with Sybil’s sister Zulieka (Rachel John) and her fellow nurses Kathy (Juliet Agnes) and Mary (Leanne Henlon) who all emigrated earlier.
Seeking employment when they turn up for interview, the job has aways just gone, an officious secretary even tells Ferdy the professor won’t see him. They aren’t the only ones who can’t get the jobs they want. In Piccadilly Circus, they encounter a hooker, Jacqueline (Beth Elliott), who dreams of a job as a carpenter. She meets up with the Reverend.
You can see where this story is going and I won’t pretend it is told subtly, indeed designer Jasmine Swan even colour codes costumes as a hint at who is going to pair up, and while the cast has to crowd into the kitchen on a truck for musical numbers, Tinuke Craig lets them burst out across the stage or even explode in glittery fantasy sequences with a shiny gold love god.
Then there is also Tameka Empson, up in a box reprising the character she originally created twenty years ago, as Mrs Aphrodite making pointed comment between scenes on the situation on stage and on what is happening in today’s world. She was a hoot back in 2004 and still is.
This life-enhancing production gets high energy performances from everyone, each a star in a joyful ensemble. Its celebration of positive values set against the shadow of prejudice has been dedicated to the memory of Philip Hedley, Theatre Royal Artistic Director 1979–2004 who to create this show brought together writers Paul Sirett and Tameka Empson, composer Paul Joseph and original director Clint Dyer (now Deputy Artistic Director at the National Theatre). It was the final production of 25 years in which he did so much for Stratford East and for theatre.