{"id":296316,"date":"2025-07-27T16:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T16:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/296316\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T16:36:12","slug":"brixton-calling-southwark-playhouse-borough-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/296316\/","title":{"rendered":"Brixton Calling \u2013 Southwark Playhouse Borough, London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Alex Urwin <\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Bronagh Lagan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex Urwin\u2019s two-hander Brixton Calling adapts Simon Parkes\u2019s bestselling 2014 memoir about creating the iconic South London music venue, The Brixton Academy. Part bioplay with music and part cultural history, the piece never quite shakes off the flattering self-mythologising of its source material. There is more than a hint of a self-celebratory hero\u2019s journey in its depiction of what some see as Parkes\u2019s occasionally unorthodox business practices.<\/p>\n

Still, Bronagh Lagan\u2019s direction fizzes with energy, and the well-selected 80s and 90s songs veer just on the right side of jukebox, foregrounding the story over the music. Add in two notable performances from Max Runham as the gritty, self-deprecating Parkes, and Tendai Sitima as his energetic sidekick Johnny Lawes and what emerges is an enjoyable, if a tad overlong evening.<\/p>\n

Urwin\u2019s linear narrative begins in the mid-1970s at the tough Gordonstoun school in Scotland, where teenage Parkes gains a reputation as a feisty scrapper, one supposes partly as a reaction to having a thalidomide-related underdeveloped arm. \u00a0A classmate of Prince Andrew (who \u201csweats like you wouldn\u2019t believe\u201d, Parkes tells us), the boy bunks off classes regularly to catch a train to London, there to buy scalped tickets to whatever gig he can find. \u201cYou do know you\u2019ll never be a rock star\u201d, his career adviser tells him. This turns out to be true, though a love of music is already embedded deep in his soul, as is a dislike of unsolicited guidance.<\/p>\n

From Gordonstoun, Parkes takes away faith in the power of seat-of-your-pants bravado, near-unhinged self-belief, and the oft-repeated, self-motivating mantra \u201cwork it out, no excuses\u201d. \u00a0Fortuitously, it also links him into a posh Holland Park-based network of assorted \u201clawyers, bankers, and wankers\u201d. Being the grandson of one of the wealthiest men in the UK does not, one supposes, necessarily detract from the lad\u2019s capacious sense of self-esteem. Urwin\u2019s mostly uncritical narrative hints at destiny and a flawed hero; the excessively cynical might idly wonder whether our protagonist, who has a ship named after him, was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.<\/p>\n

A chance trip to Brixton in the early 1980s leads Parkes to stumble upon a former musical hall theatre and cinema, now largely used as a storage space and marked by \u201cdarkness and the stench of a beer-soaked floor\u201d. Leaseholders Jim and Bob (Runham and Sitima, both talented mimics, take on a host of well-drawn minor characters) sell the venue for \u00a31 in return for a ten-year beer concession. The Brixton Academy is born, and Brixton Calling\u2019s hitherto pedestrian momentum fires up notably.<\/p>\n

The subsequent storyline explores the location\u2019s diverse early mix of punk, indie, goth, metal, reggae, and hip-hop performers, its significance as a rehearsal space and venue for political agitation (Arthur Scargill was never charged on the basis his cronies drunk like fishes), and its later success as a location for more mainstream, high-profile gigs.<\/p>\n

Most enjoyable is a manic excursion into the early 1990s rave scene, where the performers dally with drag queens and pogo as if their lives depended on it. Antagonists come in the form of dodgy promoters, local protection rackets (\u201csend me in your CVs\u201d, Park tells a pair of heavies), stabbings, drug dealers, racist police, riots, and IRA bomb threats. Only once do we ever see the protagonist doubt himself, and then only momentarily.<\/p>\n

Though subjective and centred on one perspective, Brixton Calling is indubitably effective in detailing the transformational role of the Brixton Academy in both the economic regeneration and cultural identity of Brixton from the 1980s onward. The opportunities it afforded Black British musicians and its symbolisation of South London as an emerging creative hub are enduring legacies. The show\u2019s evocative musical palette includes covers of Blondie, Billy Ocean, Bob Marley, and The Clash, amongst others.<\/p>\n

Singer-songwriter Runham has a tremendous vocal range and brings charisma and wry humour to an immensely energetic turn as Parkes. A likeable Sitima charms, sings impeccably, plays mean guitar and keyboards, and makes the most of the show\u2019s best comic moments. \u00a0Nik Corrall\u2019s clever set impresses, too: urban metal light-rigging, bare wood, a graffiti background, and a floor that is mostly a mosaic of gig flyers. Setting aside its inclination towards hagiography, for anyone who came of age in London in the 80s, Brixton Calling is a welcome blast from the past.<\/p>\n

Runs until 16 August 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: Alex Urwin Director: Bronagh Lagan Alex Urwin\u2019s two-hander Brixton Calling adapts Simon Parkes\u2019s bestselling 2014 memoir about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[109869,748,109870,109871,393,4884,257,109872,109873,6080,109874,109875,2764,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-296316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-alex-urwin","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-brixton-calling","11":"tag-bronagh-lagan","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-max-runham","16":"tag-nik-corrall","17":"tag-review","18":"tag-southwark-playhouse-borough","19":"tag-tendai-sitima","20":"tag-theatre","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114926176617296749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}