The Brooklyn Scotsman
★★★☆☆ It’s a rap
Young Critics Scheme review
Hill Street Theatre (Venue 41): Fri 2 – Sun 25 Aug 2019
Review by Layza Venancio Mirhadi
The Brooklyn Scotsman, at the Hill Street Theatre for the full Fringe, is Stevie Creed’s story of how, as a teenage Scottish rapper, he decided to leave home and fulfil the American dream.
He moves to New York city and finds himself living in one of the roughest ghetto neighbourhoods. Fulfilling the American Dream is not as easy as it seems, as he recounts short snippets of his different memories, told through acting and rapping.
Stevie Creed.
The intimate venue is great, enhancing the performance and the live music, played by Simon Drummond on drums. There is also is also a pre-recorded sound track of a young woman singing, who has a phenomenally strong voice.
Drummond contributes to the atmosphere, especially when Creed is rapping. He never steps out of the music bubble and makes you engage with the music by keeping your eyes at him or even just bobbing your head along to the beat.
Creed is nearly a triple threat. His way of telling the story is engaging, stepping into each New York memory by first acting then rapping. The rap sections are extremely strong as he gets lost in the lyrics. Especially with his facial expression, body language and hand gestures. The lyrics flow really well and you begin to have picture in your mind of what life was like for him in New York.
full potential
However, the director, Liam Rudden, doesn’t seem to use Creed’s skills to their full potential, particularly when he constantly uses the same hand gestures. More subtle hand gestures might make the character more believable and a change in pitch to his voice would be more engaging, particularly if he could build up a bigger range of emotions.
The Brooklyn Scotsman is a great show for young people aged 16 and over, with its energetic and passionately humorous stories of one young Scotsman’s journey in New York City.
Running time: One hour (no interval)
Hill Street Theatre, 19 Hill Street, EH2 3JP (Venue 41)
Friday 2 – Sunday 25 August 2019
Daily: 7.30pm.
Tickets and details: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/brooklyn-scotsman
Website: https://steviecreed.com/
Twitter: @StevieCreed
Facebook: @StevieCreedMusic
Instagram: @steviecreed
ENDS
