The Harder They Come

Synopsis

Country-boy Ivan leaves home in the Jamaican countryside and travels to Kingston, his head full of songs that he hopes will earn him fame and fortune. But fortune is hard to find as Ivan is ripped off by shady record producers and corrupt cops. He does find the fame he craves - but for all the wrong reasons.

Our Review:

10 June 2008

There’s a sequence in the second act of The Harder They Come at the Playhouse – bowing in the West End after two seasons at Theatre Royal Stratford East, and stints at the Barbican and in Birmingham – in which Rolan Bell as the country boy Ivan is beaten by police, rallies to sing a sotto voce version of the title song, translates it into a radio hit and emerges, like a butterfly from the chrysalis, as a full-blown gangsta rapper in snakeskin shoes and waistcoat, white cap and dark glasses.

The music and staging carry him through the dramatic twists and the stage pulsates with a common purpose. This is typical of a production that is not only a sardonic tribute to the songs and story of Jimmy Cliff and the music business in Kingston, Jamaica, but a brilliant improvement on Perry Henzell’s raw and casually compiled 1972 cult movie.

Applying the best of Brechtian staging principles, the show, written by Henzell himself (he died in late 2006), is...

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Latest User Review

Nadia - 1 July 2010:

Absolutely Superb. Saw this on 19th June in Wimbledon. Blew me away. The cast are super talented, the story was enchanting and brought me to an era which is part of my Jamaican heritage. Could watch this again and again and not get bored. Loved it. A must to watch...

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