Here Comes Trouble

Keira Martin’s Here Comes Trouble contains some impressively executed Irish dancing to music which is a meld of Irish melodies and Jamaican beats in a memorable piece about identity. Who are you if you’re both Irish and Jamaican and live in Barnsley? ‘Where do you come from?’ is a question she’s often asked and like Jackie Kay, the poet, her answer is ‘Here’ but this show becomes gradually darker in mood.

A charming and moving piece with some stunning Irish dance.

Martin first appears in an enormous Goldilocks-like wig of yellow curls and wearing a bright red Irish dance dress embroidered with gold Celtic designs. She flashes the audience a beaming smile as she unpacks her wooden chest, taking out a microphone and stand before setting them up and proceeding to dance on top of the box.

She then takes other objects out of the chest, undresses down to her underwear, takes off her wig to reveal a brown Afro and gradually unpeels her own psyche and history. The continual stop-start of this, as she puts stuff away or takes other stuff out, undresses or dresses up again, rather slows the piece down but this is more than made up for by the darkening mood that is created by her reminiscences or confessions. It’s clear, if you’re born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire you have to be ‘hard’.

Taking on the persona of her mother, she puts on a grey, figure-hugging, floaty dress, and the piece becomes even more anguished. It is not clear what the back story is but you don’t need to know the details. Keira Martin successfully manipulates the audience’s emotions, and each time a more harrowing episode ends, there’s a beaming smile. This is both a charming and moving piece with some stunning Irish dance.