Dance – King’s Head Theatre, London

Writer: Matthew Morrison

Director: Charlotte Peters

Matthew Morrison’s short drama, Dance, fizzes with life-affirming energy. Originally devised as a highly successful online piece in 2020, this first stage production is directed with vision by Charlotte Peters, who replaces the meta-theatrical frame of split-screen YouTube videos with deceptively simply staging. Having the two actors sit apart, never speaking directly to one another, brings out Morrison’s consistently enthralling storytelling and the vitality of the performances by Saffron Coomber and Christopher Harper. As both feed off audience responses, the sheer headiness of experiencing live theatre is palpable.

Teenager Kemi wants to get a tattoo. Vividly and engagingly portrayed by Coomber, Kemi explains that this is partly a philosophical thing: while people shamelessly switch opinions on social media, a tattoo is irreversible. But she also needs to belong. She hopes that having the name of her pop idol Ayesha inked on her arm may impress the older girls at school who persistently bully her. Harper gives depth to his portrayal of her genial single dad. By turns comic and vulnerable, he feels powerless to protect her. But he understands the totemic significance for his daughter of Ayesha’s distinctive dancing and empowering lyrics.

He has his own humiliations. Perhaps he is a victim of bullying too? He works in Parliament, he tells people, before admitting he’s a security guard there. He gives a wonderfully comic account of manning the airport-style security when a tour guide insists on the rights of a visiting American school kid to bring in a realistic toy gun. Unfairly hauled up for his handling of the incident, he is advised ‘respond, don’t retaliate’. It is the same message Kemi is given by the school.

Determined to make Kemi happy, her father buys wildly expensive seats at the O2 centre to see Ayesha live. We feel tension, however, when Kemi reveals her secret horror at the thought of being seen with him. Then we’re at the O2 centre itself and so powerful is the story telling and the sound design, we magically believe we’re there. Less savvy audience members may at this point be secretly googling ‘Ayesha’ to see if she exists. But no, she is a wholly credible confection of writer and director, along with Lindsey Miller’s composed-for-the-show anthem: Dance Like You Mean Business. Kemi, along with all the other fans, starts to dance, imitating Ayesha’s famous moves (choreographed by Lily Howkins). In a state of rapture, Kemi is finally free of inhibitions, sensing in the moment the universal love of audience and performer.

But in a gut-wrenching moment, she discovers that a film of her dancing has gone viral. Can father and daughter somehow stop mockery at this level? Her father’s solution – outrageous, dangerous, insanely funny – provides a darkly satisfying end of the play.

Revenge is sweet.

Runs until 17 July 2021