Thrilling Peaky Blinders dance show is coming to Birmingham

An action-packed new dance show based on the hit BBC show about Small Heath’s Peaky Blinders is coming to Birmingham this week. 

Famed dance group Rambert – Britain’s oldest dance company – will premiere the dramatic new show at The Birmingham Hippodrome on 27 September.

Written and adapted for the stage by Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight, Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is a new dance theatre show directed and choreographed by Rambert’s artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer.

The production features the full permanent Rambert dance company on stage, and a live band playing specially commissioned music and iconic Peaky tracks.

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is Rambert’s first collaboration of this kind and through dance theatre picks up the story of the Peaky Blinders at the end of World War One, following Tommy Shelby and Grace Burgess through their passionate love affair. While Tommy is building his empire, Grace is operating as an undercover agent for Special Branch on a mission to get close to the heart of Tommy’s gang. As the story unfolds, many hearts are broken.

Steven Knight previously worked with Rambert during an episode of Peaky Blinders which featured dancers from the company performing a sequence from Swan Lake.

For the stage show Knight has included exclusive plot and character insights that were in his mind as he was creating the TV show.

These new plot and character details will be a treat for the legions of fans around the world who are hungry for more Peaky Blinders action after the series ended earlier this year.

The dance show includes references from the TV series which will delight fans. The audience will instantly recognise the (pre-recorded) voice of narrator Benjamin Zephaniah (Jeremiah in the series) illuminating key points of the story as dancers perform across the stage.

The audience at the closing ceremony of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 at the Alexander Stadium were given a sneak preview of Rambert’s Peaky Blinders show in August.

Discussing the upcoming dance show, Steven Knight said: “Peaky Blinders has always had music and movement at its heart and now the beating heart of the show will be transferred to the stage, an interpretation of Tommy’s story performed by Rambert, one of the leading dance companies in the world.

“This is dance for people who don’t usually watch dance and what I’ve written has been transformed into something startling by consummate dancers and choreographers.”

Benoit Swan Pouffer, artistic director of Rambert, added: “Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is something on a scale we’ve never done before, and I couldn’t be more ready for the challenge – it’s such an exciting opportunity as a choreographer to tell these stories and recreate these characters through dance.

“It is also a great collaborative opportunity to have been working closely with Steven Knight on this original production.

“What you’re going to get as a result will be an inspiring and uplifting dance show, but so much more than a dance show.”

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby premieres at The Birmingham Hippodrome on 27 September and runs until 2 October