The Last Word Festival at The Roundhouse has kicked off in spectacular fashion, this is a two-week long fusion of spoken word, theatre and gigs. We attended launch night and were treated to a performance of Last Night from the acclaimed band Benin City and cross-art form company nabokov.
In a wonderful example of storytelling through song, Benin City highlight the decline of London nightclubs by telling the story of those who have experienced them first hand.
Directed by Stef O’Driscoll, the electronica mixed with brass sound of the band, is combined with poetry and spoken word audio from the London nightclub scene. It’s superbly evocative and beautiful to watch as well as listen to.
Benin City members, Joshua Idehen, Tom Leaper and Shanaz Dorsett conjure up the thrill of getting in to the club, three girls to one handbag and the journey home. After watching the performance you feel like you’ve just spent the night actually clubbing with the group.
Benin City, who will be performing Last Night at Latitude on 15th July, say that song is a protest and dance is a riot, given the beauty of their performance we expect audiences to be queuing up for this particular demonstration of their talent.
