Kate tells
the story of everyday heroics, and how these age-old stories can help us make
sense of our own lives. Towards the beginning of the show she says something
along the lines of “everybody has a parable of a friend who could have gone
somewhere but took too many drugs. Everybody has the parable of a drunken old
man sitting on the bench in their local park”. She goes on to make the point
that everyone has an important and interesting story to tell, whether or not
this story is immediately assessable. This idea struck me, because one of the
reasons I love London is the sheer quantity and diversity of people, each with
a special story to tell.
Kate was
described by the Guardian as having a “genuinely galvanising presence”. During
the show you feel as if you’re watching something sacred. Kate’s messiah like
quality leaves you speechless and feeling as if she has been put on this earth
to tell her story (or perhaps, more importantly, the story of others.) I’m
aware of the hyperbole in these statements, but they are hard to avoid when
used in conjunction with this poet! I’ve even heard Kate Tempest referred to as
a “21st century Shakespeare”, and although this term has been applied
to other artists before, with Kate it seems to be closer to the truth.
‘ill manors’, the first film made by musician Ben Drew, A.K.A.
Plan B, is a tale of survival on London streets. It tells the story of battling
against drugs, gangs and violence, which is not new at all, and has in fact
probably been overdone. The film is powerful, despite its tendency to slip into
the clichéd story of fighting for respect on the streets. Drew interweaves different
characters personal tales of hardship, using six songs from his latest album to
narrate the story of particular characters.
Drew comes
close to telling the story in a new way, by promising in the film’s opening
sequence that he will be the sole ‘narrator’ of this struggle. However, apart a
few songs, Plan B’s voice is not heard enough in the movie. If Drew expressed
his own voice more, with characteristic insight and intelligence, he could have
reached a new level of understanding about life on London streets that the
film ultimately shrives for and fails.
Kate Tempest
and Ben Drew both attempt to narrate the average Londoners disillusionment
through spoken word. Brand New Ancients
left me inspired, and the only criticism I had was that the show wasn’t being
performed to school kids across London, so they could be sprinkled with her
gold dust. ill Manors on the other
hand left me relatively hopeless, because Drew depicts a world where hope is hard
to come by.
Judge for
your self...
Plan B – ill
Manors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8GvLKTsTuI
Kate Tempest- Brand New Ancients http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1a8iFSXCHLw#!
