Archa Theatre

Jonzi D: Lyrikal Fearta - The Requel (programme from the performance)

Revolt of British Rapper and Poet Jonzi D is Childishly Cute (Lidové noviny)

March 19 - 21, 1999

"Bringing theatre to Hip Hop as opposed to bringing Hip Hop to the theatre."

Jonzi D

Lyrikal Fearta opened to a full house at the Oval House in the autumn of 1995 and went on to become a nation-wide success selling out dates in London including The Place Theatre. Not stopping there, Lyrikal Fearta success has also reached Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Swindon. This is a theatrical performance inspired by Hip Hop and consists of lyrically motivated movement, mime poetry and thought provoking scenes with a humorous edge.
The Requel builds on the original format of the show by introducing additional sketches dealing with a variety of issues such as police brutality, black on black violence and boys meet girl relationship.

Jonzi D

Jonzi D has been at the forefront of the underground British Hip Hop scene it's inception in the early 80´s. Since graduating from the London Contemporary Dance School in 1993, he has danced and choreographed in Tel Aviv, New York, Europe and Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1995 he collaborated with MC Mello and toured with Gangstarr. In the same year he served as creative consultant on LWT´s South Bank Show special documenting the art and culture of Hip Hop. He has been an Associated Artist at The Place Theatre and is creator and host of the successful Apricot Jam, an infamous monthly club event of live Hip Hop music and an open mike session.

Artistic Director: David John
Performers: David John, Frank Wilson, Richard Banks, Martin Robinson, Eric Appoulaly, Alan Miller
DJ: William Ntimih
Musicians: Jason Yarde, Richard Cassell
Production: Rajpal Pardesi, James Bennett

Classroom

This is actually a prologue, which introduces the audience to the Lyrikal Fearta as 'alternative education'. A disruptive student addresses the lack of African history taught in the school curriculum, despite being in a classroom of predominantly black students.

Silence Da Bitchin'

A battle rhyme using the concept of Lyrikally Motivated Movement.
Words are graphically illustrated and brought to life using mime and pop-locking techniques, like a human musical score. This piece, created in 1994, is Jonzi's first attempt at fusing rap and physical theatre.

Safe

A study of control. When is it right to NOT express our deepest emotions? In this piece, an emotion or idea is depicted as a surge of energy travelling through the body, looking for an outlet. Then the flesh becomes word…

Shoota

This is a story about an individual who becomes possessed by the spirit of a gun. This piece also raises questions about the glorification of firearms in the media.

Guilty

In the UK, there are plenty of documented (and undocumented) cases of deaths in police custody. This piece was created as a mirror for all the oppressed peoples globally who may have experienced injustice by the so-called justice departments of the world.

INTERVAL

Magnificent mic magician

Some good old Hip Hop rap stuff in Jonzi's formidable improvisational style!

Cracked Mirror

Black on black violence is a sickness that plagues a lot of communities within the African diaspora. The mirror image motif throughout the piece comes from the idea that we are fighting ourselves. The trio of performers represent one body fighting an internal battle for love of self.

Aeroplane Man

Born and bred in England, but I want to go home.
This true story of displacement, a journey that Jonzi has actually taken, starts from London and travels to various parts of the world in search of a place he can call home, destroying romantic ideas of 'The Motherland' along the way!

Fast Lane

"This one goes out to all the Hip Hop heads out there!!"
Old school B-boying and turntable wizardry serve as the finale for a piece celebrating the traditional pillars of Hip Hop culture with a critique of the modern day commercialisation of rap music.

The performance was presented as a part of Multicultural Britain presented by The British Council in Prague.
The performance was supported by Radio 1.

Revolt of British Rapper and Poet Jonzi D is Childishly Cute

English "choreo-poet" Jonzi D, together with his group of dancers and musicians, performed Lyrical Fearta - The Requel, at the Archa Theatre in Prague within the framework of the Multicultural Britain project. It was a performance consisting of stage clips, which Jonzi D narrated the experiences of a dark-skinned, young man from the London's East End - by means of a lyrical monologue and performing as rap singer. There are solos, or movement dialogues with other members of the group, dancers with the accompaniment of rap music. We can hear conservative and melancholic free jazz. The final hip-hop sequence of the performance includes four of Jonzi's dancers.
          But for those who came to the performance of Jonzi D merely to see an exhibition of rap, they would have been disappointed. The primary element here was protest. Jonzi stylizes the bard of the big-city periphery: however, this bard is not just protesting, he is also receiving slaps, he is a bard for all the time on the run. His texts, written in slang and penetrated by the often all-too-comprehensible "fuck" which he addresses to the first row of the white culture, is spoken as a bark and beats the air. His performance is a type of production which is about movement, dance and song, ... which is in the present modern British dance...
          Jonzi D allows the shape of his stage to penetrate using its own rhythm and feeling. Hip Hop is an art of sharp and expressive lines. In his dance, especially in the break-dance, strong associations to mime can be found. Break is for a large part pantomime with an unusual precise drawn movement. This is also the reason why we could see more break than rap in the performance. Mime-break offered an almost propagandistic illustration of Jonzi's text... Lines and rhythms of Jonzi's word performance and break also belong to other performers of Hip Hop and graffiti. (…)
          The highlight of the movement sequence of the production is performed as a tough fight, in which the sovereign with the bald head calmly and brutally prepares Jonzi's seated punishment. In addition to the lacerations, this scene is a precise duet of both partners. Kung-fu elegantly and naturally becomes back-breaking spins, the break to a free-style fight and everyone performs in the dialogue with the fated sounding music. Lyrical Fearta is dance theatre, which is moving between alternative and pop. From alternative, it has penetrated the borders of style and genre, the consciousness of one's self and society as a problem; from pop, the immediate communication with the audience, and the cuteness. Jonzi's revolt is sincere and legitimate, (...) Britain created an opportunity for it's sons to tell their own story.

Nina Vangeli, Lidové noviny, 26. 3. 1999