With A Little Bit Of Luck @ the Garage
An absolute banger of a night
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the evening as I headed down to The Garage; all I’d read or heard regarding With a Little Bit of Luck was that writer Sabrina Mahfouz said in an interview with Vice Magazine “[it’s a] play about London, raving, summertime, the encroachment of adulthood, love, betrayal, money and of course, music”.
We were welcomed to the sound of Dizzee Rascal’s I Luv U as we took our seats; on the stage were two microphone stands, a keyboard and decks. A singer and a DJ entered the stage, the DJ looking like an extra from Kurupt FM dressed in all white. Garage pumped out of the sound system and the singer started to do her thing. With a very impressive set of pipes on her I realised quickly we were about to be treated to an absolute banger of a show.
The play consisted of next to no props or scenery, just the three of them on the stage with nothing but the music to guide us through the night. Vocals from Martyna Baker, music spun by Gabriel Benn and the wonderful Seroca Davis walked us through the entire story through spoken word/rap, portraying several characters, Nadia being the centre of the story.
Our story started in the summer of 2001; Nadia a young, aspirational teen just offered a uni placement, with one long summer ahead of her, and a boyfriend who wants her to choose between him and all their plans for the summer, or university. Davis painted a perfect picture, with a little help from the soundtrack of euphoric old school garage vibes, and I genuinely felt like I’d been picked up and put right there in the story witnessing the raves, the drama, the people. We were walked through a busy summer of good music, great raves, money, drugs and betrayal. A cleverly written story, Mahfouz writes so well that Davis could switch between characters with real ease, the story fitting perfectly with the tunes and lyrics of the soundtrack; it worked perfectly.
I’m not going to explain the story to you, all I will say is if you get the chance to go and see WALBOL, DO IT! An absolute banger of a night, my feet were tapping and shoulders shaking the whole time, truly wonderful.
You can catch With A Little Bit Of Luck at Latitude Festival later this year.
