REVIEW: BODY 115 at The Hope Theatre 5 - 13 May 2023

‘Where theatre meets poetry, local history and time travel, Jan Nobel has gilded tonsils’ ★★★★

Poet Jan Noble projects like a true thespian in the black box of The Hope. His gilded tonsils fill the space as he recites his hour-long, mini-verse drama, Body 115, with all the conviction and emotional force of a Hamlet or King Lear. He admits he's had no formal training but his years as a former punk band member of Monkey Island (who also performed in the basement of The Hope & Anchor pub lifetimes ago) have served him well.

The inspirational source for this epic voyage in verse comes from the charred remains of a long unidentified body from the 1987 Kings Cross fire, known reductively as Body 115. For those who remember this terrible event, the careless cigarette that caught fire in a bin from the days when smoking and bins were permitted in the underground, this work is an aide-memoire to that awful time, since eclipsed by more recent London tragedies.

On a stripped back stage with atmospheric sound design, a single piece of luggage is positioned. This old, battered suitcase that sometimes acts as Noble's seat of contemplation, serves mainly as a symbol of the ceaseless movement of modern life and the heaven, hell and paradise of all we might encounter. 

Body 115 is resurrected and reimagined as Virgil in Noble's homage to Dante's Divine Comedy. As we traverse London and Europe, we hear, see and smell many things but the scent of death is never far from our nostrils as it weaves through multiple strands of this piece: the death of artists, bankers and relationships, the dead bodies on the Marchioness and many more.

The experience is like being carried on a great swell of words. Noble is a hyper masculine presence in his trenchcoat and DMs, a gravelly geezer with guttural diction that brings to mind Stephen Berkoff in his prime. As he regales the audience with theatre and poetry, the best you can do is enter the moment, surf the words and be carried on this voyage of past, present and future. For lovers of London, poetry, local history and the soul, this is an energetic performance and perhaps where Body 115, can finally be laid to rest with some dignity.

BODY 115

5, 6 & 10 - 13 May 2023 at 7.45 pm

The Hope Theatre

Box Office: https://www.thehopetheatre.com/productions/body-115/

Written and performed by Jan Noble

Directed by Justin Butcher

Lighting design by Tom Turner

Sound Design by Jack Arnold

Reviewed by Nilgin Yusuf