Despite sleek marketing and a great deal of hard work, Break the Floorboards does not quite hit the spot
By Chandrika Patel
Break the Floorboards is Rifco’s new dance drama that had been in development for two years before it was taken on stage at the Watford Palace Theatre. Against the sleek minimalist design of Libby Watson and Mark Dymock, the play opens with the gutsy Bollywood Number ‘Bachna e Haseeno, Jo Mai Aa Gaya’ choreographed by Andy Kumar and Maria Swainson introducing the central character Zain (Daniel Uppal)- the wannabe dancer on the stage.
The story is set in one of those small English towns with high employment and a mixed population; the sort of place which is on White supremacist target lists. The single parent family where a Pakistani dad has walked out on his family for a younger woman provide further realism to Yasmeen Khan’s story as Zain’s single mum (Sheena Patel) struggles to cope in a council flat living an insular existence, feeling looked down upon by her own ‘Muslim community’. Zain’s older politically aware brother Adil (Nathan Clarke) is deeply resentful trying to be the ‘man’ of the house. Any notions of Zain’s ambition to be a dancer are squashed by his meek mother addicted to Indian soaps.
Zain’s attempt to fulfill his dream, his mother’s isolation and the fears for the future voiced by Adil and his friends are played out against the menacing rhetoric of the EGBDP and its threatened town-centre march. As in ‘Saturday Night fever’, Zain finds an ally in the dance teacher Sophie (Carrie Baxter) who brings his personal dilemmas to the foreground.
The lamenting lyrics of Shakeel Badayuni‘Na Jao Saiyan Chura Ke Baiyya’ from the classic black and white Hindi film Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam ( 1962) wonderfully portray Zain’s mum’s back story. However the music score by Sumeet Chopra created to fit the dance pieces fails to have the toe-tapping-pulse-raising effect that dance-dramas often excel in reducing the seduced audience members into buying of the overpriced CDS at exit doors.
‘Break the Floorboards’ or ‘Chak de Phatta’ is a phrase used by Punjabis meaning ‘Go for it’. If this attempt by Rifco is to be seen in a British Asian variation on ‘Billy Elliot’ then unfortunately the dance drama fails to deliver the high energy determination of Zain’s ambitions despite of well rehearsed dance routines inspired by Bollywood & Street dance forms. Whist the use of the American dance form rooted in urban landscape complements the themes of the story, the production fails to bring out the form’s raw and edgy ‘street’ spirit in the dancers predominantly from white/Asian backgrounds.
Despite of sleek marketing and a great deal of hard work, Break the Floorboards does not quite hit the spot, feeling like yet another masala-ticking-the-box kind of a ‘British-Asian theatre defined by issues and archetypes. The Clark Kent look-a-like character of Zain does not manage to morph into the ‘Superman’ inspiring the true spirit of ‘Chak De Phatta’ into the audience.
Dr.Chandrika Patel gained her Ph.D in Drama (British Asian) in 2008 from the University of Exeter and works as a freelance writer, researcher and arts practitioner. patelchandrika@hotmail.com