Grimeboy review By Chi Lam
A gripping story written by Casey Bailey about the dark reality of the music industry. The play follows two protagonists Grimeboy (played by Keuren Hamilton-Amos) and Blue (played by Alexander Lobo Moreno), they both unite after competing against each other in an MC battle. However, Jay (played by Corey Weekes) is clearly established as the antagonist of the story, losing sourly to the up-and-coming duo of Grimeboy and Blue.
Throughout their time together Grimeboy acts as a mentor figure towards the hot-headed Blue and almost forms a brotherly relationship between each other. However, things turn south as Blue gets ambushed and left for dead on the streets. This leaves Grimeboy defeated, lacking any motivation to carry on his music career but prevails due to his respect towards Blue and later becomes successful in his endeavors.
Though not being accustomed to Grime or rap culture in general, I still found the play extremely touching and even the rapping segments heightening the emotions that were displayed especially when Blue is shown in the afterlife.
The simplicity of the set, comprising of wooden boxes made to look like boom boxes and the lighting were used in an innovative manner, especially scenes where blue’s talent is shown, instead of having him simply rap the lyrics the lights turn to an almost galactic colour scheme as he’s stuck in a trance like state while the rest of surroundings are frozen. In my opinion, the lack of an expansive set and instead opting to use boxes to create different settings was quite Brechtian as it forced me to imagine the scene instead of simply showing me.
Something that I find quite refreshing with smaller performances. Kudos to Ebrahim Nazier for creating such a compelling set.
Alexander portrayed Blue’s youthfulness and immaturity extremely well compared to the Level headedness and quick witted nature of Keuren. Both of their performances managed to keep me engaged along with Corey’s intimidating presence.
By Chi Chi Lam
