This Town (Bunker One, Pleasance Courtyard) is a one-man show, written and performed by Rory Aaron. It’s based on his narrative poem ‘And Within These Cobbled Streets’ and tackles serious issues of masculinity, lack of opportunities, and the exploitation of and lack of support for young men enlisted into the armed forces.
This Town is recognisably a ‘spoken word’ performance, with a fantastic flow and beautiful rhythms and cadences. Some magical internal rhyming seems effortless, but just when the audience is somewhat lulled by all of that, Aaron interrupts the flow—takes a drink, switches on or off the lights on stage, which are really his only props, moves his stool, or falls to the floor—and brings us to attention. It is so, so clever.
Although Aaron narrates the story, he is the young men involved too, switching effortlessly between them. The language is brutal, subtle, arresting, and beautiful. It matches the story. We start with two 25-year-olds meeting in the pub, years after they have gone their separate ways after school, are taken through their stories, and ultimately brought back to those two 25-year-old men—who we may well have forgotten in the meantime. It’s not just a story about those boys and the men they have become, though; it’s the story about how poetry and spoken word performance start, stop, grow, and finally come to fruition. It’s genius.
Aaron is the scally we all recognise, and as the beauty of the poetry emerges, the audience is challenged not to take things at face value. Who is this man? How come this ragamuffin speaks so eloquently and from the heart? It’s confusing and slightly threatening to begin with. He’s full-on from the start, jabbing his finger and seemingly addressing members of the audience directly. It’s uncomfortable: a bit like being accosted by a drunk on the street. Until you realise they mean no harm—they just have a story to tell. A riveting one at that. And you relax. And listen. And it pierces your heart. ‘I loved it, I just loved it,’ I heard people breathe as they were leaving what had seemed like a little part of Derby. This Town is performed in a bunker. That seems fitting.
