Ever since I was a teenager I have always been drawn to Soho. Even before I moved to London I would joke that no matter where I was I could always find my way there. I spend most of my nights out there, it has amazing food and entertainment that you won’t find anywhere else. Soho has a life and an energy of it’s own, one that is hard to capture, so when I saw that a show was attempting to do just that, I knew I just had to see it.
Soho is a dance and circus theatre performance that takes you through different areas and aspects of Soho life through the day and night. It is told through movement, amazing feats of strength and endurance, dance and music
Physically, you will see some performances here that will leave you in awe of what the body can do. Various expertly performed circus skills are shown here including aerial performance, gymnastics and more set to a street dance style beat. This relatively small cast do achieve some incredible things, however, some of the less impressive-performances appear when the artists appear to lack energy, particularly within the large group scenes in the first act. Here at times it almost seems as if they are just going through the motions, appearing as it if is more for a rehearsal than a full live performance. It is a shame as it draws away from some of the really incredible physical endurance and skill that happens around these moments. There is some physical comedy but sadly this fails throughout, not even gaining a titter from the audience.
The second half was darker, grittier and appeared to have the most energy. Here we see performers really commit and the story truly emerges.
On the whole however, story is lacking and I think more could have been done to bring it together, rather than it just being a jumble of unrelated scenes. One actor is ‘lost’ and goes from scene to scene, stumbling across things at will and this is the only real story arch, I think it could do with just a little more heart.
The multimedia aspect of this performance is really well done however, the streets, bars and other aspects of Soho come to life via some expertly created projections which really look stunning. The set build is simple but used amazingly well with the projection to create the different spaces in Soho.
Soho is on at The Peacock Theatre until the 20th of May
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