Fringe regulars may remember the moment towards the beginning of last year’s Festival, when performers, media and audiences alike slowly caught wind of the London riots, following them on smartphones and Twitter and fearing whether they would pick up in Edinburgh. For the Londoners amongst us, it was a scary time - and for those in the cities affected by the riots, a stain on the history of Britain.
Directed and written by Florence Odumosu, the musical explores the lives of four young people as they get caught up in the riots, flicking between group numbers and solos in the short 35-minute piece. Use of non-naturalistic movement, coupled with dance in the songs helps to make the music feel a part of the show, rather than separating songs and spoken sections out too definitively. With that in mind, however, many aspects of this show feel distinctly grounded in school-level drama, with techniques and ideas thrown together like an A Level devised piece.
The standout performance comes from Matthew Leggett, by far the strongest in the cast. In his dance it’s obvious that he’s choreographed the show, and in his acting there are clear seeds of talent that will likely make him a name to look out for in the future. Where he is let down is by the material and by his castmates, who don’t quite match his commitment to character or song. This may have been aided by the lack of live music - the programme describes Riot! as a rock opera but it feels more like a set of vaguely rockish songs thrown together around a theme, sung to backing tracks.
The main issue with this show is its reactionary nature and its naivety. Responding to the London riots with three working class and one middle class character giving their stories does do a lot to explain the working man’s plight in modern Britain, but it also doesn’t give a realistic picture of the microcosm of people that looted the streets of cities up and down the country; it lacks a wider understanding of the problems facing Londoners and other city-dwellers of every background, no matter what their class. What the show gets right is not to glorify the rioters, but what it gets wrong is to fail to delve too deeply into any particular story or thread within its material - leaving, thousands of gaps in the process. What we’re left with is a superficial and altogether workshop-like performance, that at 35 minutes in length is about as satisfying as a tiny canapé, when what you really want is a three-course meal.
