5 hip hop theatre shows to bring back in 2012

2012 is starting to heat up right now – the Breakin’ Convention Calendar is squeezing in more dates into it with every passing day and new shows are being announced left, right and centre – artistically this year is one to very much one to look forward to.

2011 was another great year for hip hop theatre – just have a look at our year in review feature. We could of course blow our own horn and boast about how good Open Art Surgery and Back to the Lab was, but what you might have seen at those two boundary-pushing shows was works in progress – so our own shows don’t qualify.

With a finite amount of tickets on sale for any show of any size, not everyone can always catch a show when it comes to town. So instead we’ve come up with 5 shows we would love to see recommissioned for the theatre in 2012, chosen for their entertainment, originality and the fact that many of these shows only got a short run the first time round.

Here we are in no particular order…

In My Shoes

Rationale Productions' feature length production sold out the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, last year with its show telling the story of a father and son attending an extreme hip hop therapy session in a desperate bid to save their relationship.

Rationale Productions features the brilliant Nathan Geering aka Diggity, who has performed at numerous Breakin’ Conventions in the past and is a Breakin’ Convention rep.

Likeliness of In My Shoes returning: Very! A sold out show at the Crucible justifies a return with the production doing a regional tour this autumn.

Country Boy's Struggle

Maxwell Golden is an Alumni of Jonzi D's Open Art Surgery and had sold out runs of the show for its comic use of 30 different characters, all played by himself. 

Directed by Baba Israel, Country Boy's Struggle is a semi-autobiographical one man play telling the hilarious story of Maxwell's dreams as a rapper moving from Cornwall to the city. It’s a classic story of one man chasing his dream in the face of adversity, which many of your favourite rappers might have done, but Breakin’ Convention bets that none of your favourite rappers hail from Cornwall. They will after this.

Likeliness of Country Boy's Struggle returning: No word on the circuit at the moment, but that doesn't mean it wont - it's a laugh-a-minute show that's guaranteed to pack out the place!

Sleight of Dance

Richard Essien, or B-Boy Bones aka the b-boy from Mint Royale’s Singing In The Rain video has another trick up his sleeve - literally. While his main talent is dancing, you may not know Bones is also a professional magician who successfully sold out his own stand up shows last winter. 

It’s possible to imagine Bones’ show suiting a cabaret venue as the show features card tricks, illusions and beautiful magician’s assistants, and escaping from a straight jacket while doing windmills is the ultimate in magician-cum-b-boy braggadocio.

Chances of it returning: Bones has showcased at Throwdown recently and will be performing extracts of his show at Serious About Street Dance 2012

The Bunker Thing

The Bunker Thing was an installation experience commission by East London Dance for Big Dance 2010 and took over a disused war bunker in Dalston, East London.

Always one to play with unique ideas for locations, Tony Adigun’s piece included projection and sound with a storyline and unexpected surprises around each corner. For a minute you'll forget you're in the city and believe you're in a dystopian underworld...

Chances of it returning: The bunker is coming back soon! Be afraid! Dates TBA.

BBE Touch

Kenrick Sandy and Mikey J Asante, the founding components to Boy Blue Entertainment have schedules so packed it’s virtually impossible to pin them down. Whether choreographing for movie or television, or producing music for the urban music scene’s biggest artists, finding a gap in their diary is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But last year they managed to find enough time to put together a short run of shows featuring the two in a completely different light altogether: Producing and mixing live, reciting poetry, and reversing each other’s roles.

Chances of it returning: Don’t hedge your bets, at least not yet.

Bad Taste Cru - Tribal Assembly

Bad Taste Cru’s Tribal Assembly was a specially commissioned piece by outdoor events consortium Without Walls which extended their piece Council of the Ordinary, performed at Breakin’ Convention 2008.

So strong was the piece that it was toured across the UK last summer, featured as part of Bad Taste Cru's Just Jam weekender and was shortlisted for the Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest.

Chances of Tribal Assembly returning: No word on it yet, although crew member Robby Graham (Raw B) recently became an associate artist at Dance City, Newcastle. Even if Tribal Assembly doesn't come back expect exciting new work and commissions in the future.

Do you agree with our choice of exceptional Hip Hop theatre work? Leave a comment in the box below!