This is the story of a derelict building and the man who turned it into an unlikely cultural landmark. The man was Simon Parkes, the building the Brixton Academy, and this drama inspired by his memoir.
Written by Alex Urwin with warm flecks of comedy, it seems like musical hagiography at first. The tone is retrospective, indulging in the romance of remembering the dark, beer-soaked spaces that Parkes loved as a teenager.
The play begins in Parkes’ childhood. Born into a wealthy household, he was a thalidomide baby with a titled grandfather and a hard-to-please father. It fast forwards quickly to 1983, when Parkes bought the cobwebbed building for £1 at the age of 23.
What initially looks like a coming-of-age nostalgia-fest turns into the story of a nation refracted through music history. Parkes is exuberantly played by Max Runham, and comes across as a knowing posh-boy, awkward with his privilege, who builds his own family out of the motley characters he meets in south London, including lovable right-hand man Johnny Lawes (Tendai Sitima, excellent). Together they revivify its fortunes – and their own. It becomes the music venue of choice for everyone from the Smiths and Lou Reed to Motörhead and Madonna.
Imaginatively directed by Bronagh Lagan, the stage is set up like a gig on a plywood platform and interspersed with music and dance. Runham and Sitima sing and dance (Chuck Berry, the Clash, the electronic abandon of an M25 rave) as well as narrating and juggling multiple voices.
With each sociopolitical shift in the nation comes a new sound, and this is what gives this drama its best moments and tension, from an IRA bomb threat minutes before a Pogues gig to a powerful scene on the Brixton riots involving police abuse.
There are many interesting aspects, but several feel abbreviated; we hear how the venue became a home for progressive politics with speeches by Arthur Scargill during the miners’ strikes, and anti-Apartheid campaigns, but the narrative speeds past this. The romance between Parkes and Pippa, who later becomes his wife, seems summarised. Brixton’s eventual gentrification is mentioned but in passing, not explored for its impact on the community and all that made Brixton Academy the rough gem that it was. Neither is its current state mentioned in any depth.
It glosses over too much in a rush to get through decades of history and politics in 90 minutes. But the production’s energy is incredibly infectious, and leaves you thinking about all that remains soaked within the walls of a single building.
• At Southwark Playhouse Borough, London, until 16 August.
