Theatre

I don’t think you could accuse acclaimed youth theatre company Chickenshed of hyperbole. With a death toll comparable to that of British troops in Afghanistan, the scourge of knife and gun violence among our youth, and the failure of the government to do anything about it, really is the crime of this new century.

Featuring a talented cast of ten young performers, including the excellent Daniel Banton whose murdered 14 year old cousin Shaquille Smith actually inspired the work, this poignant dance-theatre piece traces the journey from ‘playtime’ to knife crime. Weaving real-life interviews with victims, their families, perpetrators, police and medical staff, a fragmented script lays out the causes of teen violence – poverty, poor parenting, a rigid social structure which engineers failure – while fluid and terse movement courtesy of directors Christine Niering and David Carey demonstrates its devastating effects.

In its most powerful scene, a gently comic sketch at a bus stop snowballs into a most shocking displaying of violence. I found it genuinely shocking, even though it is only carried out on a wooden chair. In another scene, a mother (played by Dominique Crooks) relives the trauma of hearing the news of her son’s death. The impact of the overall story is perhaps lessened by its generalised narrative. But if the twenty first century will be remembered as the time we let our children kill each other, Chickenshed will be remembered as the theatre company who had the guts to ask how and why.

'Crime of the Century' played at Zoo Southside, Nicholson Street, Edinburgh.