The thunderous announcements for Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, on at La Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt (west of Paris) until March 30, promised a grand show in keeping with the Peaky Blinders series and its worldwide success since the first season in 2013. What audacity to adapt a sumptuously tortuous script with its bevy of characters, each more exciting than the last, including the electric Thomas Shelby! While the undertaking by the English company Rambert Dance was perplexing, it generated a greedy curiosity.

So, yes or no? On Wednesday, March 12, did we feel we were in the sticky Birmingham of the 1930s, in the fumes of pubs, playing with caps and razor blades as we bet our bob at the horse races? In terms of headgear, we were all set, with the free distribution of caps identical to those worn by the performers on stage.

As for the blades, they may shine in the darkness of the stage, but they remain accessories and have apparently not been used to sharpen a libretto that proves inconsistent: the love, death and destiny of Tommy Shelby, seasoned with opium to give a touch of taste. As for the thoroughbreds, they prance around in an old-fashioned merry-go-round. In short, in just a few dull scenes, including the introductory one of a World War I battlefield from which Shelby returns traumatized, we see the widening trench between the series and the show.

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