Grimeboy begins off with a misleading lightness as a coming-of-age story sprinkled with humour, comical male braggadocio and thumping bass. The stage is decked out with audio system and a DJ (Auden Allen) mixes at his turntable. It's a signal that Casey Bailey’s gritty, transferring play will come closely laden with the sounds of grime.
So it does, with its three actors telling the story partly via “spitting” lyrics, all of them as proficient at rapping as one another. Directed by Madeleine Kludje, the story revolves round two aspiring grime MCs – Grimeboy (Keiren Hamilton-Amos) and his protege Blue (Alexander Lobo Moreno). They start as adversaries at a grime battle however quickly turn out to be agency allies.
Their trajectory takes within the tenderness of younger male friendship and explores the tradition of knife crime inside their world, channelled via the backstory of Jay (Corey Weekes), with its cyclical violence and vendetta.
It's not as penetrating or sophisticated in its exploration of identification as Particles Stevenson’s larger, extra subtle grime musical, Poet in da Nook, however it has an emotional honesty and a few thrilling theatrical moments. The music (composed by Auden Allen) is infectious, with quick lyrics and thumping bass; the actors’ choreographed actions within the struggle scenes are additionally deft and there may be very placing lighting (LX design by Ryan Joseph Stafford). Ebrahim Nazier’s set of big audio system is moved round by the characters in creative methods, too.
The story has a fairly predicable arc and the script is heavy-handed and tough across the edges at occasions. The primary a part of the present lacks rigidity however the manufacturing will get higher because it goes alongside, gathering immense moments of energy.
Rooted in native points and lives, it's completely refreshing to see this sort of theatre, spoken with its personal poetic, streetwise argot. It's delicate but sturdy in its research of latest Black British male identification and the bind during which its characters are positioned. As one vulnerably sings: “We're informed to consider guys with hoods are the scary ones and never the scared.”
Grimeboy is at Birmingham Rep till 30 April.
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