Theatre / Jack Dean
Preview: Jeremiah, Wardrobe Theatre
Acclaimed rap storyteller Jack Dean brings to life the story of England’s much-misunderstood Luddite Rebellion in his ‘epic gig-theatre-show’ Jeremiah, which visits the Wardrobe Theatre on September 11 & 12.
Jeremiah uses live music and performance to tell the incredible true story of the much-misunderstood rebellion, a movement that spanned the North of England, had more British soldiers fighting it than Napoleon, and made the destruction of machinery a capital offence.
The story is told through the lens of the life of Jeremiah Brandreth, the instigator of the Luddites’ final act, the Pentrich Rising, and the last British man to be beheaded. Weaving alongside this story is the parallel tale of William J. Oliver, the government spy that betrayed him.
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This little remembered story is brought to life as a live music gig performed by Jack Dean and a three-piece band. A cellist, violinist and guitarist work with loop pedals to create an original score that mixes hip-hop, shoe gaze and cinematic composition styles, while Jack delivers an epic true tale exploring lots of characters, all contained within rap verse metre.
A vivid AV design is projected onto the stage, alongside creative captioning to help both d/Deaf and hearing audiences access the show’s fast-paced delivery of a lyrical 13,000 words.
This and top pic: Matt Austin
Jack Dean is an Exeter-based writer, performer and theatre maker who has carried his love of weird and wonderful arrangements of words to many places, from the Bowery Poetry Club in New York, Latitude Festival and the South Bank. Previous productions include Grandad and the Machine, Horace and the Yeti and Nuketown.
“When I started researching the Luddite Rebellion and the Pentrich Rising, I couldn’t believe that such a tumultuous moment in British history goes relatively undiscussed,” Jack explains. “Here was a time when a government was fighting a wholesale revolt against capitalism itself, deploying battalions of troops and a small army of spies and informers to quash it.
Pic: Ben Borley
“We tend to think of the constitutional and political structure of England as something very solid (at least until recently), but here was a time when an enormous field of ideas of how we might live together were being considered, and many were ready to take enormous personal risks to try and make them reality.
The medium of hip-hop for the music of the show came to Jack more naturally than you might imagine. “These revolts and revolutions were built on a bedrock of contemporary folk song, so a modern retelling sits perfectly within the folk music of the modern age.”
Jeremiah Sept 11-12, Wardrobe Theatre. For more info and to book tickets, visit thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/jeremiah
Read more: Preview: Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), Bristol Old Vic
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