theatre feature

Future Rebel

Bethany Whiteside meets ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award winning Baba Brinkman, the Fringe’s rap rebel.

There are two sides to every story, and in hip hop performance show ‘The Rebel Cell’ this notion forms the backbone of the plot. Created by Baba Brinkman, of ‘The Rap Canterbury Tales’ fame, and MC Dizraeli, the show is set in Britain in 2013, where civilised society is a thing of the past.

Poetry has always been popular amongst individuals looking for a creative outlet to depict suffering; think Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke. Baba Brinkman and MC Dizraeli have both been into poetry and rap since the ages of six and nine years old, respectively. The former performed poetry at family birthday parties, and the latter’s early memories are getting into ‘Boom Shake The Room.’

The road to this performance has been ridden at full-pelt, with work beginning on the show last April and it was finished in May, just in time for the Brighton Fringe Festival. Influences were drawn from George Orwell’s, ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farm,’ as well as the book ‘The Rebel Sell’ by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. A key theme of the show is terrorism: “We set the scenario five years from now to make it more realistic and a real possibility,” says Brinkman, whose mother is a politician in Canada. “Glastonbury is the British version of Guantanamo Bay, the BBC is now the BNPC – run by the British National Party – and the government uses whatever it can as an excuse for tyranny. 9/11 is an example.”

Brinkman explains, “We want audiences to walk out and feel like they’ve been challenged; that there are two sides to every argument and one doesn’t exist without the other. I guess the real message to get across is that consensus is only produced by debate. Nobody’s ideology is superior, it needs to be tested in the marketplace of ideas. Like the Edinburgh Fringe, which is the hardest test performers can do to find recognition. I also want people to come out of our show and feel that certain genre relationships, like those between art and politics have shifted. We’ve created a performance that is not wholly theatre or music but embraces both. It would be great if people got more into one or the other because of us.”

The worlds of art and politics may not always be welcome bedfellows, but Brinkman doesn’t think the two are as dissimilar as some might think: “I’m very pro-democracy and I think that’s partly why I find the Edinburgh Fringe so great, it’s a democracy as well. There is no place like it in the world; this Festival is oxygen for me.”

Having been performing here since 2004, Baba is well aware of how this democracy works and has much wisdom and many tales of adventure to impart: “My advice for first-time performers would be don’t get jaded. The Edinburgh Fringe is an arts utopia but it’s also an arts gladiator. Flyer like crazy! My first year here I got five stars from The Scotsman, which was fantastic, but also came down with strep-throat and had to cancel my first three shows... Last year my brother was over with me and met and fell in love with a Polish girl. They spent just two weeks together and later on he proposed to her over the phone. They’re getting married this September. They’ve never even kissed!”

And does Baba think he’ll find love this Fringe? “Maybe,” he laughs. Time will tell.

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'The Rebel Cell' was on at the Pleasance Dome.

published: Oct-2008

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