Stomping their way to success

When Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas formed Stomp in 1991, the maximum they thought they could stretch it was three years. But the world was left spellbound with this unique combination of theatre, dance, comedy and percussion that uses everything from trash bins to brooms to even the kitchen sink, to hammer out an explosively feel-good rhythm. The British theatrical sensation which has performed in 53 countries over six continents has been brought to Mumbai now for their first-ever India performance by AGP World.

Recall value

Luke was hardly 17 years old when he met Steve, who was eight years elder to him, in 1981 as members of the street band Pookiesnackenburger and the theatre group Cliff Hanger. Together, these groups presented a series of street comedy musicals at the Edinburgh Festival throughout the early 80s. “Luke and I hit it off right away. He was a bit of a prodigy,” laughs Steve, adding that in those years, they learnt to work the audiences together. In 1991, Steve and Luke first created Stomp, previewing at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre and premiering at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, where it became The Guardian’s Critics’ Choice and won The Daily Express Best of the Fringe Award. “Nothing we had done had lasted more than three years, and we thought it would be the same for Stomp as well. But then, it got crazy and it’s been crazy since,” he recalls. 

Steve is being modest in calling it ‘crazy’. It’s much more than that. The group has now toured all corners of the globe, bringing over 20,000 performances to more than 12 million people in 53 countries. They have performed at several prestigious events, including the 1996 Academy Awards and a specially choreographed appearance at the closing ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Explaining the reason behind its success, Steve says, “I think the main reason is that the music of Stomp is pure rhythm. Every culture or form of music has rhythm of some kind. We have stripped away, for most part, melody, or anything that would indicate a style or a genre. Also, we never took ourselves seriously. We want people to have fun and to laugh. And we felt we would not achieve that if we take ourselves seriously. The show should have an energy to it, and no matter how old you are, what background you come from, everyone can appreciate it,” he says.  

Stage impressions 

It’s not easy to describe a Stomp performance in words. Performers come on stage and use everything from kitchen sinks to trash cans to brooms and everything in between to create an exhilarating soundtrack inspired by the commotion of everyday life, through percussion, dance, theatre and comedy. Recalling how they started using everyday props to enhance their performance, Steve says that they had to be mobile while travelling from one place to another for their street performances. “We would not want to be sitting in one place, but would be jumping around and running to the audience and things like that. We would improvise with things like brooms and other things. Gradually, we had an arsenal of objects, until we thought we could make an entire show out of it. It forced us to think of crazy ways and go beyond what we did,” he says. 

And while it looks like a lot of fun for the audience, there are months of rehearsals, complicated techniques and physical effort that goes in every act. “All our performers have to master a technique tat we call campanology. It involves having a complex number system in your head. Performers look like they are enjoying themselves but in their heads, they are counting,” reveals Steve. Training for a show takes at least three months and another six to completely integrate it into a show,” he adds. 

Their team is now looking forward to the perfomances in Mumbai. “Every place that we perform, audiences enjoy different things. It’s going to be interesting to see what the subtle differences are here,” he says. And are they doing something special for the Indian audience? He smiles, “We never plan that. It might just happen organically. We give a lot of leeway to our performers. We might see something in India that inspires us!”

Stomp will be staged at NCPA from 7 December to 18 December 2016.