KATE TEMPEST / BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE ON TOUR: BRAND NEW ANCIENTS
St. Ann’s Warehouse
29 Jay St. at Plymouth St.
Through January 19
718-254-8779
www.undertheradarfestival.com
www.stannswarehouse.org
On January 16 at St. Ann’s Warehouse, British poet, rapper, and playwright Kate Tempest prefaced her performance of her breakout hit, Brand New Ancients, with a heartfelt, off-the-cuff love letter to New York City, which has adopted the twenty-seven-year-old during her ten-show run in DUMBO. She then offered up her 2010 poem, “Balance,” a parable that deals with four kids, Ambition, Talent, Envy, and Pride, that could serve as a personal mission statement for Tempest, who started rapping when she was sixteen and has experienced widespread success. Casually dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a faded T-shirt, she then began Brand New Ancients, a compelling seventy-five-minute tale that earned her the 2013 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. Backed by Emma Smith on violin, Natasha Zielazinski on cello, Jo Gibson on tuba, and George Bird on percussion and electronics, Tempest tells the story of two middle-class families brought together by lust and violence as they search for connections in a lonely world. Childless couple Kevin and Jane live next door to Brian and Mary, who have a son, Clive; Jane and Brian’s affair leads to the birth of Tommy, triggering years of problems for all involved. Tempest transforms the melodrama into a lurid yet insightful fable of superheroes and villains where the gods are everywhere and in everyone. In gorgeous, rhythmic cadences that avoid the staccato bravado so prevalent in much of hip-hop, Tempest says, “The myths of this city / have always said the same thing — / how we all need a place to belong, / how we all need to know / what’s right and what’s wrong, / and how we all need to struggle / to find out for ourselves / which side we are on.” She soon adds, “We’re the same beings that began, still living, / in all of our fury and foulness and friction, / everyday odysseys / dreams and decisions, / the stories are there if you listen.” The rapt, sold-out crowd listened to Tempest’s every word as she passed no judgment and cast no aspersions on her characters’ sins. The strings were particularly effective in Nell Catchpole’s minimalist score, while the drum solos during Tempest’s short breaks felt mostly unnecessary. Brand New Ancients, which is part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, is a clarion call for people to take a look at themselves, and at the world around them, and become heroes in their own everyday lives.