IAIN EWOK ROBINSON IS LIVE AT MUSHO!

Very popular hip-hop poetry exponent blows the audience away with quick-fire delivery and superb audio-visuals. (Review by Maurice Kort)

Very popular hip-hop poetry exponent Iain (Ewok) Robinson blows the audience away once again with his quick-fire delivery aided by superb audio-visuals.

Iain (Ewok) Robinson has a huge following and is deservedly very popular, proved by his having been a two-time past Musho Festival winner of the Audience Favourite Award. Witness again an almost full theatre. One, of course, has to appreciate hip-hop rap and this particular form of entertainment - but even if one doesn’t, one has to admire his ability.

The poetry itself varies, some is amazing, other less so. A large part of his show includes awesome video projections (visuals by Karen Melissa Logan and audio by DJ Veranda Panda) and these deserve special mention. It can be overdone though as the title, and premise, of the presentation is “live” and Iain Ewok is offstage a fair amount. This could be excused if there were costume changes but this only involved a change of footwear on one occasion. However, the programme does explicitly state - referring to “what you see and what you get” - that just because it’s “Live” doesn’t mean that it’s happening right now. An example, of the audio-visual overkill is that one of the excellent videos showed “Insert Verse” sub-titles and then on a subsequent showing later, Ewok was on stage to insert verses and chorus. The first showing could well have been omitted.

Much thought has gone into the poetry, audio-visuals, performance, and even the programme, and they show. I loved the “Act Won”, “Act Too” and “Act Free” in the programme – all relevant to the show.

Liam Magner did a superb job handling the sound effects, with and without Iain Robinson on stage. It is a great pity that both Liam Magner and Iain Robinson have relocated to Cape Town so Durban audiences will see less of them. – Maurice Kort