Is it better to live with an overactive sense of imagination, or to knuckle down to reality?
That’s the question at the heart of Scottish Dance Theatre’s first work for young audiences under artistic director Joan Clevillé, a fun and all-action romp which has something for everyone.
Dylan Read is Tom, who works in a sporting goods shop but doesn’t seem to put his heart into it. Instead, he’d rather fall asleep in a pop-up tent writing pirate stories which no-one wants to read.
His best friend is Daisy (Kassichana Okene-Jameson), manager of the shop, whose enthusiasm for the job has her organising team talks and huddles.
Daisy covers for him, but Tom is an outcast, mocked by the others as the worst salesperson in the shop.
Until one day the tables are turned, and Tom and Daisy enter his fantasy world via the magical tent, meeting Captain Sandy Rogers (Jessie Roberts-Smith) and her pirate crew – and the pirate hunter Admiral O’Greed (Ben McEwan).
The tale is told beautifully through the physical performance abilities of Scottish Dance Theatre’s company, under Clevillé’s direction.
It’s a scripted show, with scenes of clear and concise storytelling throughout the dance pieces, but it’s the latter which really make it spectacular.
There are great fun ensemble pieces here, including Daisy’s clubby team warm-up and some swashbuckling pirate adventuring, yet the way the dancers’ physicality is used is what’s really exciting.
‘Walk the Plank’ is crashmat lark
In one scene our adventurers find themselves stuck in a seaweed-logged cave, while odd, mutated zombie creatures slither from the glowing, pulsating tent.
The heroes’ stuck feet and the beings’ weird movements are a special effect in themselves, the way they’re performed by professional dancers.
Another scene features pirate games including ‘Walk the Plank’, a crashmat-landing lark for the cast, in which the line between dance and circus is broken down.
Beautifully designed by Matthias Strahm, as though a child has opened their toybox and started building things, Pirates! is exciting, warm-hearted and perfectly inventive. Hopefully young audiences get to see a lot more of it after this run.
Pirates! is at Dundee Rep Theatre until Saturday June 17.
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