Theatre productions and hip hop aren’t the most obvious of bedfellows, but 93 ‘til Infinity proves tonight that opposites really do attract.
I was intrigued how this would work when I was offered the chance to cover this brand-new production with the community arts organisation Slung Low at The Warehouse in Holbeck. It is a venue that I’d not been to, which was enticing, but the back story to how the production came about had already drawn me in.
Co-writer Ed Heaton (Ruth Rowan-Cooper is his partner on the writing side on this) was inspired by a visit to the brilliant 50 years of hip hop Kulture exhibition that was at Leeds Museum from the summer of 2023 through to March 2024. I’d visited that exhibition at the time and also loved it, gaining a fascinating insight into a musical world which I’d dipped my toe into as a fan in the 90’s – mainly through the ‘golden age’ of American hip hop with the likes of De La Soul, Salt & Peppa, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Gang Starr and of course Souls of Mischief, who provide the title song for tonight’s play – but my knowledge of hip hop and it’s place in Leeds musical history was limited outside of Nightmares on Wax, Skinnyman and Jehst’s links to the City.
It’s so easy to see how it inspired him, but what’s really clever is how the two writers, as well as producer Katy Hayley, stage manager Heather Newsham, movement directors Jenny Carney & Kathryn Gilbody and Director Rachael Halliwell have woven a cohesive story around the exhibition, some of which is used as stage props for the brilliantly orchestrated prelude that takes part in the passageway at the start of the performance, doubling as the exhibition area within the venue.
From there the three leading actors who form the story’s Leeds group, The Proper Posse, take us into the main seated area for the show. As well as shuffling us into the makeshift auditorium, they also take us backwards and forwards in time. 93 ‘til Infinity joyfully jumps between 1993 and the present day, from how the group start as school friends forming the group, to the troubles as they hit the sleazy suits of the music industry, back into their fragmented relationships today as they are coming together for the first time in years to reminisce at the exhibition.
Luke Dickson (who plays Graham to his Mum and DJ G Flex to us), Rhiannon Canoville-Ord (Lady D-Stroy) and John Holt-Roberts (Mikey Money) all deliver impressive and relatable performances, filled with joy, pain and some genuine moments of humour. The parts are played really well and the songs are a foot- tapping hoot (so much so we pre-ordered a t-shirt and a record from the merch they are selling to try and help fund the production moving forward). No surprise when I hear local beatboxer, rapper and playwright in his own right Testament has been involved on the lyrical side of things.
As a production it’s very much a love letter to Leeds and the 1990’s. There are plenty of references from both that period and the City scattered in amongst the dialogue and the songs themselves. It’s a burst of nostalgia that reminds you of simpler times in many ways and while it is clearly aimed at a local market to start with, I could see with a small amount of tweaking how it could be equally successful as a performance in other parts of the UK moving forward.
The Warehouse venue and Slung Low deserve a special mention, too. From what I’ve seen tonight it’s a brilliantly run community space that gives real opportunities and brings a lot to the local area, a part of Leeds that has had it tough in my lifetime. It’s nice to see places like this being used to make a real difference and that includes them working tonight with Better Together to give them a space as well in the venue to promote the great services they offer in the region, across the four charities involved.
As I said at the start, hip hop and theatre don’t naturally spring to mind as a pairing, but in this superb, understated and unpretentious setting it couldn’t be a better combination. It’s in the heart of the community, with an ethos of pay as you feel for tickets, so that theatre as it’s often stereotyped isn’t just for the rich and that is incredibly important as a concept to me. This is that working at its best. Hopefully, this production, Slung Low and The Warehouse are here for a long time to come, maybe for infinity even.
93 ‘til Infinity is on at Slung Low, The Warehouse, Holbeck with the following performances:
Friday 11 September 2026, 7:30pm
Saturday 12 September 2026, 2:00pm
Saturday 12 September 2026, 7:30pm
Book online at https://tinyurl.com/93show
The production is aimed at audiences interested in new writing, hip-hop, Leeds history, community stories, music and contemporary theatre.
Photography by Kev Trotter unless otherwise captioned.
