We had the privilege of attending a screening of Coventry Belgrade Theatre and NottinghamPlayhouse's production of Peter Arnott's swinging political love
story “Propaganda Swing”. Based on true events and
“jazzed up a bit”, our story takes place in “The Bore War” of the late
30's and early 40's and tells the tale of the American journalist
Billy Constant and his experiences in 1939 Berlin – a city on the
brink of more than one war.
Our protagonist takes a
leap of faith and moves to the unstable city in search of his one true love, married jazz-artist Lala. He experiences the propaganda war of
the Nazi regime as the Propaganda Ministry takes an interest in his
sweetheart and her band and decides to use them as weapons in the
war of propaganda. Lala and Co. face many moral dilemmas as their
beloved jazz, otherwise forbidden to them due to the racial politics
of the regime, becomes ''purified'' of it's “non-Aryan” themes
and used as a weapon against the Allies.
Propaganda Swing had us
dancing in our seats and holding our breaths as the tale took turns
to the unexpected, accompanied by the fantastic performance of the
accomplished live band. Chris Andrew Mellon's “Otto Stenzl” left
us in stitches and moved us to tears, and Miranda Wilford's amazing
“LaLa Anderson” left little to want as the story took darker turns. The play's amazing art
deco-set and the clever re-writes of the biggest jazz-songs made it all the more memorable and left us jazzed up and excited for
more to come.
On a similar note, our
exec's left the play feeling ready to swing the night away so here is
a playlist with some of the songs in the play (minus the propaganda!) and
some of our favourite jazz hits of all time!
/ Hiba x
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