OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 3 June 2012

MORE tales of the unexpected on Sunday night as Damian Barber’s extraordinary roadshow rolled into Inverness, making their first ever visit to Scotland.

TO SAY the show mixes beatboxing and hip hop, clogging and morris, sword dances, cross-dressing, horned men and electro-folk music inside a vaguely narrative wrapper still doesn’t even begin to explain why the Inverness audience gave it a rare standing ovation.

Time Gentlemen Please!

Things start a little awkwardly with a pub set, complete with bar and snooker table, and a standalone door. There’s a hint of amateur dramatics, but this is swiftly dispelled once the music and dancing start. What Barber does, to brilliant effect, is show the deep roots of popular culture, somehow managing to connect the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (whose eponymous reindeer horns have been carbon dated to 1065) with today’s hip hop crews, to fuse folk tunage with drum ‘n’ bass and make the whole thing flow naturally.

Folk fusion isn’t new of course, it’s a furrow which has already been well-ploughed by Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span in England, Shooglenifty and Afro-Celt Sound System in Scotland, and all their many musical heirs. But few of them draw in the real sound of the streets the way this show does, and it’s safe to say none of them uses floor mop percussion.

As for the dance, it lays bare one of the threads that runs through all dance, display to assert one’s fitness and skill, dismay rivals and attract a mate. The sword dances, both the rigid longsword, which has obvious links with Shetland’s Papa Stour sword dance, and the newer Rapper style dating from the 19th century and featuring a flexible steel blade, are dazzling.

There is a collective holding of breath in the latter when a decapitation or two seems entirely possible. The use of a Betty (man dressed as woman) and a Tommy (leader) to engage with the audience is a very ancient tradition, also harked at by music hall, circus and music videos. Homegrown, full of life, warmth and strength, Time Gentlemen Please! is a heady brew. Another round, soon, please.

© Jennie Macfie, 2012

Links

• Time Gentlemen Please!
• Jennie Macfie