Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
YOu Are Nyi is a spectacular work: a self-proclaimed “epic, social thriller” involving theater, dance, music and “a cast of hundreds”, all directed by Danny Boyle. It takes over the main part of the Southbank Center and sets itself a similarly demanding task: “reimagining the glamorous and popular youth and cultural groups that have advanced culture since 1951”, the year of British partywhen the Royal Festival Hall opened for business.
“Some” is becoming a buzzword: there’s a lot going on, but even so, the size of the subject means that selection is important.
Adopting British pop culture is best seen as dancefloor-centric. There’s a lot about the 60s pop explosion that transformed the UK from post-war that listeners of You Are Here first experience (you’re wandering around London’s smoky, gray population). New Romantics and Britpop are also hard to see, and the hippy culture of the late 60’s and early 70’s is very rare, unless you count the revival of old West London art that may have been the product of the “alternative society”. Albion Free State (“ANGRY TIGERS ARE WISE THAN ADVISED HORSES”).
However, you could argue that the New Romantics have their own exhibition – the Design Museum’s Blitz: The Club That Made the 80s – and we’ve all heard enough of Britpop in recent years to last a lifetime: better to fix the 90s by looking at the culture of the post-acid house group than to wheel out Wonderwall for the umpteenth time.
And you can’t doubt the love of the organizers of their story. Indeed, at times you are intrigued by the idea that the event might be a bit too fun for British youth culture for its own good. In one dance, a group consisting of young women, spider tattoos and punks – one of the punks comes from the famous Sex Pistols group following Jordan Mooney – caress, then welcomes a group of immigrants to Windrush.
It’s a good idea, and it’s well-made, but it seems to ignore the fact that, if you gathered a group of teds, skins and punks in the late 70s, the result would not be a happy dance and a model idea for immigrants but a big ruck. Someone could have ended up in A&E.
In some places, it is not clear what the protests are driving. There are records of Dagenham machine stroke in 1968 and 1963 Bristol bus strike: these are important events to remember – the latter faced terrible discrimination against blacks and Asians in the city; the original was the catalyst for the passing of the Equal Pay Act – but it’s hard to see what it has to do with British youth or pop culture.
In the ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall – transformed into a club where the music changes from Northern soul to house to drum’n’bass. to grime – the dancefloor is momentarily removed to be choreographed with accompaniment that moves from Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock to Dutch techno sub-genre gabber. The dance is amazing – a very energetic run, full of high strokes and spins – but you struggle to understand what you want to say.
Meanwhile, the main hall of the Royal Festival Hall plays host to a group of young people who are dancing wildly to Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy. He slowly falls to the ground, before the room is lit up by mirrored lights and David Bowie and Freddie Mercury’s vocals from Under Pressure emerge. I am perhaps about the effects of the AIDS epidemic, but you can’t be sure.
Similarly, the whole business is clear and often exciting: the dancefloor in the ballroom is filled with sound; the stage outside the main entrance of the Royal Festival Hall, with DJs on a set designed to look like a living room of the 70s, plays a series of irresistible bangers and people dance happily in the evening sun; the whole atmosphere is very beautiful.
Perhaps the best course of action is to ignore the shortcomings, not question them too deeply and just surrender to the experience – like a teenager embracing a youth group.
