The work, soundtracked in part by Nick Cave and narrated by Benjamin Zephaniah, premiered on Tommy Shelby\u2019s home patch at Birmingham Hippodrome in 2022 and has now been filmed for television.<\/p>\n
With the gang\u2019s violent working-class grace, Tommy\u2019s menacing beauty and the show\u2019s seething soundtrack, Peaky Blinders was balletic from the beginning, and Knight considers this production a natural progression. \u201cFor me it\u2019s always been a little bit about the swagger of the Peakies, how they walk and how they move,\u201d he says of characters based on the gangs his own grandparents knew.<\/p>\n
As ever for Knight, this story is a reclamation of family, class and city mythology. It begins in 1916 with the slaughter on the Somme; trench warfare expressed dramatically through sound and movement rather than special effects. \u201cThe First World War is when their characteristics were altered so dramatically,\u201d says Knight. \u201cIf you want a full picture of who Tommy is, of who [older brother] Arthur is and why they are like that, this is a good explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women, always well represented in the television series, are accorded even higher status, running things back in Birmingham while the men are at war. \u201cThere\u2019s more about Polly and Ada,\u201d Knight says, \u201cabout how they have been controlling things, how the gambling has been working perfectly well.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Cillian](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/03\/372343-0af0a4b.jpg?quality=90&crop=249px%2C118px%2C3877px%2C2583px&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Cillian")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>All this, and what follows \u2013 Tommy\u2019s outward success and his inner turmoil, the rise of fascism \u2013 are expressed through dazzling solos (look out, in particular, for the one-legged South African dancer Musa Motha) and powerful ensemble pieces that physically conjure up the dark political forces at work in the Peaky Blinders\u2019 world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a relationship between fascism and repetitive factory work\u201d is how Knight describes the way ideas become dance. \u201cWhere people are all doing the same movement at the same time, for the same purpose, over and over again. Benoit said something to me: when you get a unification of movement and people suddenly all start doing the same thing, it\u2019s very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea originated when the BBC introduced Knight to Pouffer, their meeting leading to a 12-minute piece for a Peaky Blinders festival in Birmingham. \u201cI\u2019m not a dance person,\u201d says Knight, \u201cbut when I saw it, I just thought, \u2018Wow, this is really good.\u2019 So, I wrote a scene where Rambert comes to Tommy Shelby\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, it\u2019s what Rambert did in the 20s and 30s; they took ballet around the country to people who didn\u2019t normally go and watch dance. And that\u2019s what they still do. So it just felt like a really good idea to do something that people who don\u2019t consider themselves to be fans of dance, who don\u2019t go to dance shows, might come out and see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen him being very emotional throughout the process,\u201d Pouffer tells RT when we ask about his experience of working with Knight. \u201cThe way he writes, it comes from his reality. Seeing him this way really touched me because he cares. He cares a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n