Review: Rambert Dance’s Peaky Blinders – A major success. Catch it, if you can.

This work of less than two hours encapsulates the essence of a narrative that took 24 episodes to unravel on TV (the danced work only goes as far as the end of the fourth of six series); a significant achievement, master-minded by Rambert’s artistic director, Benoit Swan Pouffer (also the choreographer) in collaboration with the smash-hit TV show’s creator and lead writer, Steven Knight, recently announced as the writer of the next James Bond film.

When I first saw this production, shortly after it’s premiere, in early 2023, the audience at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, was heavily dominated by fans of the TV series, many of whom were dressed accordingly in vintage “Peaky” style, the men wearing traditional baker boy caps (minus the razor blades, one hoped). Here in London, two-and-a-half years later, the only people dressed for the period were onstage. Richard Geller and the team at Rambert have created over 1500 costumes and accessories that capture both the 1920s aura and that of its television reenactment with aplomb.

I confess to never having seen an episode of Peaky Blinders, but I suspect that this lack of prior knowledge made little difference to my understanding since the creators’ care has positioned the key elements of the narrative with clarity. This is helped by an occasional (and not over-burdening) recorded voiceover by the late Benjamin Zephania, who played Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus on TV. Zephania was alive when I first saw this danced production (he died in December 2023, aged 65) and the richness of his voice in the narrative is a small part of a legacy that will last for many years to come.

In terms of narrative clarity, I found Act 1 to be straightforward, and the expansion of the Shelby’s criminal empire is cleverly articulated (the use of fairground carousel horses to demonstrate their intrusion into racecourse gambling was an excellent device). The assassination of Thomas Shelby’s new wife, Grace, effectively illustrated how Shelby was so immune to his own fate by this time that the only way of hurting him was to kill his wife.

Act 2 is more complex and thus less clear. It opens with a long scene in an Opium den, with Thomas Shelby overcome by the madness of grief, and continues with periodic visions of his dead wife, all leading to the redemption signalled in the work’s sub-title. The fight scenes in both acts, including the Battle of Charlie’s Yard towards the end of the work, are excellently choreographed and performed with pinpoint timing by the ensemble.   

Another resounding success for this production is a superb foot-tapping soundtrack, containing a musical tapestry of almost 40 separate numbers, the majority of which (24) have been composed by Roman GianArthur and are performed live by a band, only partially visible at the back of the stage, although lead guitarist and vocalist, Mitchel Emms occasionally popped into view. Other musical credits are a mix of recorded highlights from other bands, such as Radiohead. Knight is quoted in the programme as saying that ‘a piece of music is either Peaky, or it’s not’ and this evocation of “Peakiness” comes across in an eclectic but well-coordinated score. The four-minute finale to Red Right Hand (II) by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (the opening theme to the TV series) brings the production to an uplifting finale, excellently interpreted in Swan Pouffer’s harmonious choreography for the whole ensemble. It couldn’t end on a better note.

The set design by Moi Tran has been cleverly contrived, through the use of raised platforms and recessed trenches and channels, to evoke each of the various episodes, starting with a prequel to the TV series in the trench warfare of WW1 (when the origins of the Shelby gang began in a tunnelling brigade) and continuing through the evolution of their criminal enterprise. However, it’s difficult to appreciate the full spectrum of this innovative presentation through the various “underground” channels when viewed from the stalls. Players simply disappear out of sight.

Conor Kerrigan was outstanding as Tommy. His whole image, from the 20s hairstyle to the unrelenting sternness of his gaze, screamed the part of the gang’s determined patriarch. As his older, much-troubled brother, Arthur, Dylan Tedaldi was another imposing presence, as was Simone Damberg Würz, almost unrecognisable in a brunette wig, in the key role of Polly Gray (the Shelbys’ aunt and the gang’s matriarch). Thomas Shelby’s short-lived wife, Grace, was portrayed by Naya Lovell with a serenity that brought out Shelby’s otherwise unseen humanity. The whole ensemble was excellent.   

This dance theatre interpretation of Peaky Blinders has been such a major success for Rambert that it is not surprising to see its quick return to theatres. These London performances at Sadler’s Wells (concluding on 17 August) are scheduled to be the final chapter in the production’s planned schedule (for a while at least). Catch it, if you can.

Peaky Blinders runs until 16 August 2025 at Sadler’s Wells, London

Graham Watts

Graham Watts is a freelance writer and dance critic. He writes for The Spectator, Tanz, Shinshokan Dance Magazine (Japan), Ballet Magazine (Romania), BachTrack and the Hong Kong International Arts Festival and has previously written for the Sunday Express, Dancing Times, Dance Europe, DanceTabs, London Dance, the Edinburgh International Festival and Pointe magazine (USA).  He has also written the biography of Daria Klimentová (The Agony and the Ecstasy) and contributed chapters about the work of Akram Khan to the Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet and on Shobana Jeyasingh for the third edition of Routledge’s Fifty Contemporary Choreographers.

He is Chairman of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle and of the UK National Dance Awards and regularly lectures on dance writing and criticism at The Royal Academy of Dance, The Place and (until the war) for Balletristic in Kyiv.  He was a nominee for the Dance Writing Award in the 2018 One Dance UK Awards and was appointed OBE in 2008.