Rich with song and story, riding on a tidal wave of reggae band magic, let’s hope RUSH – A Joyous Jamaican Journey returns to Scotland soon.
📍 Insert Venue – Link to ticket site
📅 July 8th 2023
🕖 Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes, including one interval
✏️ Created by: Rush Theatre Company
🎂 12+
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets, Audio Enhancement System
In an age of gigs thinly disguised as musical theatre, RUSH – A Joyous Jamaican Journey is refreshing in its honesty. In place of a narrative vehicle upon which to hang the discography of [insert band name here], we have comedian John Simmit and a powerpoint presentation. In place of one band’s work, a vibrant Ja Reggae Band dives into the rich 75 year history of Jamaican created & inspired music made since the Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury in 1948.
Simmit, the evening’s nominated historian, begins further back, 400 years give or take, narrating Christopher Columbus’s accidental (he was looking for India!) arrival in Jamaica. ‘There’s no such thing as black history, or white history’ he explains ‘there’s only our history.’ It marks a generosity of spirit, and inclusivity which pervades the entire production; no one is left on the outside looking in.
Further, for a show beginning with the horrors of slavery, and inevitably concerned with Britain’s historical, and continuing struggle with racism, RUSH is indeed perpetually joyous. This is a celebration of people who not only survived, but thrived; people without whom the NHS could not have been created. People who danced, sang, and enriched the world with timeless music despite, and to spite the forces ranged against them. This is their story, told with wit, laugh out loud one-liners, and a whole lot of seasoning!
Bringing that party-superpower are The tremendous Ja Reggae band fronted by vocals from a versatile and charismatic IKA, and the soulful power of Janice Williamson. There’s also the seemingly bottomless energy of DJ Ken Dread, on the decks when a vinyl deep-dive is required. Between them, RUSH offers a packed, and compact musical history covering ska (that’s ska, not skaw to you), rock steady, calypso, gospel, lovers rock, dancehall and reggae.
This is a show destined to bring audiences to their feet again and again, and thankfully dancing is encouraged. From a buoyant Young, Gifted, and Black, through a rocking My Girl Lollipop, a pop-tastic Brown Girl in the Ring, and a smoothly swaying Cherry Oh Baby, it’s a show to vivify the most sedentary. The big, bad Ja Reggae Band make each genre hop a pleasure, and if we all have our preferences, they have the quality to make your least favoured numbers more than tolerable. In fact, you might enjoy a fun game of ‘spot the x-type of music lover’ as they jump to their feet at the appropriate beat.
Simmit covers about the first 400 years of his story pre-interval, and the last 50 or so afterwards. There’s also a good deal more structure to the before than the after, which becomes more party than show. Whilst Simmit’s message of immigration as an enriching force remains clear, there’s less storytelling, and fewer opportunities for his sharp comedic talents to shine. Where music makers are lovingly introduced in the first act, a degree of familiarity is assumed thereafter, and younger audiences could well emerge a touch bewildered.
RUSH – A Joyous Jamaican Journey does however continue to provide a ready supply of good music, lovingly made. It also attracted one of the most visibly diverse audiences I’ve ever seen in the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Augusts included. It would be easy to put this down to cultural recognition, but theatre makers would do well to ask themselves how they can simulate some part of the same welcome. For all the undoubted good that comes of colour-blind and colour-conscious casting, it’s not just the singer, it’s the song that counts too.
Rich with song and story, riding on a tidal wave of reggae band magic, let’s hope RUSH – A Joyous Jamaican Journey returns to Scotland soon.
RUSH – A Joyous Jamaican Journey is a production of the Rush Theatre Company.
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