The Stage • The Guardian • Croydon Advertiser • Time Out
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The Stage
Zoe Green
Wednesday October 4, 2006
An astonishing, enthralling production that successfully blends hip hop and theatre and manages to address ethnic and social issues without being patronizing.
Set at East End pirate radio station FM 110, the two ‘wise men' DJ Tariq and MC Blaze battle out the issues of British black and asian cultures - until gorgeous, sassy Zahida comes along to challenge their arguments. What started as a tolerant easy-going friendship between Tariq and Blaze soon becomes a cultural war.
Tales of dissociation is a new form of genre and too often the resulting works are full of cardboard cut-outs with applique issues coloured in with unconvincing psycho-babble (see Not The Love I Cry For at the Arcola). In less than an hour, Fin Kennedy manages to give Zahida, Tariq and Blaze real identities and narratives whose fates we care about. Their actions aren't always entirely rational, their issues don't all stem back to some childhood horror, the plot doesn't all lock neatly together. This is what makes it so good.
It's human, believable and utterly compelling. Visually it is an imposing production and the impeccable choreography is mesmerising. DJ Billy Biznizz's bangra and hip hop beats and the clever, complex lyrics are the icing on the cake.
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The Guardian
Lyn Gardner
Monday October 9, 2006
Hip-hop and rap have become familiar elements in the theatre over the past few years, and have even found their way into the West End in the musical Daddy Cool. Unlike some other appropriations of the street for the stage, Fin Kennedy's play about teenagers doing pirate broadcasts from a makeshift East End studio has a ring of authenticity.
Kennedy is the young writer who caused a stir earlier this year when his play How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found walked away with the prestigious John Whiting Award, despite the fact it had never been produced. Sheffield Theatres have now picked up that play and will be premiering it in the spring. In the meantime, Locked In demonstrates Kennedy's highly attuned ear for the patter of local kids and his understanding of the tribal loyalties of friendship, race, gender and religion that forge teenage identities.
Blaze, a young black teenager, and his Asian friend, Riqi, are the self-styled "two wise men" whose DJ/MC double act on the local pirate station is getting them noticed. But they are growing up, and the pressures are beginning to build. When Zahida, whom they both fancy, enters the equation, their friendship is blown apart.
Kennedy's play feels squeezed for time, and tries to stuff too many issues into the mix - from gun crime to Riqi's sudden embracing of Islam. It also doesn't entirely escape stereotypes.
However, Angela Michaels' production is steely, and the young cast live and breathe their roles. Once your ear attunes to the beat and rhythms of their speech, the show has you in its grip. The real test of this production is not whether it appeals to ageing Guardian theatre critics, but whether the kids Kennedy is writing about would venture in to to see it and recognise their own lives.
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Croydon Advertiser
Friday 13 October, 2006
Locked In is the story of three teenagers who regularly skip school to broadcast pirate radio from a disused East London tower block. Bengali DJ Riqi, Carribbean MC Blaze and new girl Zahida all think they know what they want from life, and don't need anyone else to tell them. But after an argument one afternoon, Riqi has something of a religious awakening, and Blaze agrees to help out a local gangster. Zahida isn't afraid to let them know when they start acting out of order, but the results still threaten to tear their world apart.
Set to a hip-hop soundtrack, the play pounds along to the beat, much of the fast-paced conversation within the flow and pulse of the music that rocks the characters' worlds. The most heartfelt outbursts appear when the teenagers pick up the microphones and begin to rap to their listening public: their frustration with school, burning ambitions and religious conflicts are all explored within the rhythm and rhyme they blast out across the airwaves.
Locked In is an example of that rare, beautiful creature: a youth-marketed play that really does make a connection with its audience. The performances from all three actors are gripping and realistic, the set is well-designed, and the story rips along at a cracking pace, ensuring that even the most easily distracted will stay engaged. The dialogue is sometimes hard to follow word-by-word, and it can take a while to adjust to the slang and speed of conversation, but this does make the interaction more believable, and the gist is easy to grasp. Definitely worth it.
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Time Out
Monday 2 October, 2006