Review: Boy in Da Korma

When you’re a teen, it’s easy to be swept up in the hype of subcultures and genres of music, especially when you discover something that perfectly exemplifies how you’re feeling. In Boy in Da Korma, we bear witness to Liam’s hip-hop awakening via Dizzee Rascal (the title of the show is a reference to the rapper’s debut album), who then leads the half-Indian, half-Irish teen to a whole pool of discovery, where the likes of NWA, Biggie and Tupac reign supreme. But it’s about more than just his love for the music – Liam believes he is Tupac reincarnated. 

It may seem like an odd premise but there’s much more to Liam’s unwavering belief in Tupac’s reincarnation. As a mixed race kid on the rural south-west coast of Ireland, the obsession with Tupac and becoming a rapper gives Liam a sense of belonging in an otherwise lonely environment, where bullies are creative with their racist slurs and insults. 

The show is structured like an album, with 10 tracks depicting different points of the story and each given tongue-in-cheek titles like ‘Straight Outta Skibbereen’. Occasionally, the hip-hop references veer towards being overwrought, but by the same token, this too-on-the-nose emphasis epitomises the somewhat cringey ways teens go through phases in the process of music discovery.

Writer and performer Jaisal Marmion is commanding as Liam, performing the teen’s passion in a way that underlines the idea that this music speaks to him like nothing else. Through discussions on race, misogyny and cultural appropriation, Boy in Da Korma highlights the complex dichotomy between feeling excluded and wanting to make your mark.