Danny Boyle's You Are Here is an ambitious undertaking: a self-styled 'epic, one-off pop-cultural spectacular' that combines immersive theatre, dance, and music with a cast of hundreds. Taking over a significant portion of the Southbank Centre, the event aims to 'reimagine some of the most vivid and influential youth and social movements that have driven culture forward since 1951'—the year the Royal Festival Hall opened during the Festival of Britain.
A Selective Journey Through Pop Culture
The phrase 'some of' is key: despite the sheer volume of content, the production must be selective. Its take on British pop culture leans heavily toward dancefloor movements. There is more emphasis on rave culture than the 1960s pop explosion that lifted the UK out of postwar doldrums. The audience first encounters an eerie evocation of smog-bound London, with grey inhabitants. New Romantics and Britpop are notably absent, and the hippy counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s gets little attention, except for a repurposed graffiti line from the Albion Free State collective: 'THE TIGERS OF WRATH ARE WISER THAN THE HORSES OF INSTRUCTION.'
However, one could argue that New Romantics already had their due at the Design Museum's Blitz: the Club That Shaped the 80s, and Britpop has been overexposed. Focusing on post-acid house club culture instead of revisiting 'Wonderwall' seems a wise choice.
Rosy View of Youth Culture?
The organizers' affection for their subject is evident, but at times the event presents an overly optimistic view of British youth culture. In one dance piece, a group of teddy boys, skinheads with spider-web tattoos, and punks—including one clearly based on Sex Pistols follower Jordan Mooney—initially wary of Windrush immigrants, eventually welcome them with joyous dancing. While beautifully choreographed, this scenario overlooks the historical reality: assembling such groups in the late 1970s would likely have led to violence, not harmony.
Other segments struggle with clarity. References to the 1968 Dagenham machinists' strike and the 1963 Bristol bus boycott are important—the latter confronted racism, the former spurred the Equal Pay Act—but their connection to youth or pop culture is tenuous.
Dancefloor Highlights and Confusion
In the Royal Festival Hall's ballroom, transformed into a club shifting from Northern soul to house to drum'n'bass to grime, the dancefloor clears for a routine moving from Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock to the intense Dutch techno sub-genre gabber. The dancing is athletic, with whiplash-inducing lifts and spins, but its message remains unclear.
Meanwhile, the main auditorium features teenagers frantically dancing to Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy. They gradually collapse, then mirror-ball lights and isolated vocals from David Bowie and Freddie Mercury's Under Pressure boom out. The sequence likely references the Aids epidemic, but certainty eludes the viewer.
Embracing the Experience
Despite these shortcomings, the event is well-intentioned and frequently fun. The ballroom dancefloor stays packed, the outdoor stage with DJs set in a 1970s living room plays undeniable hits, and people dance happily in the evening sun. The atmosphere is lovely throughout.
Perhaps the best approach is to ignore the flaws, avoid deep questioning, and surrender to the experience—much like a teenager embracing a youth cult. You Are Here may lack coherence, but its vim and ardour are undeniable.
