While the Bolton Octagon’s building is closed for renovation, the company continues to make innovative use of surrounding local spaces. Its two-planks-and-a-passion production of “Beryl” by Maxine Peake perfectly suits the intimate and vintage space of the Bolton Library Theatre.
In a stripped-back production that made fun of its own low-budgetness – Peake’s script quite pointedly makes the comparison of how both sport and theatre are insufficiently supported in Britain as compared with the Continent – four actors raced through the life-story of Beryl Burton, renowned cyclist, at a breathless pace. They had bicycles both on the stage and in the audience that had a stand on the back wheel, so they could pedal furiously without moving, and the whirr of the wheels and the constant ticking of a stopwatch in Andy Graham’s percussive sound design kept the story driving forward, like the irrepressible personality of Beryl herself.
Vicky Binns was born to play Beryl. She gave a tough, dynamo of a performance with tunnel vision that socked the back row of the theatre. Nobody could be under any illusion how hard a high-achieving sportswoman, in any field, has to work after an evening in Binns’ company. The downside of this personality, such as the lack of appreciation for Beryl’s supportive husband and the public snubbing of her own daughter when she grew up and beat her in a cycling race, was given just as much forceful delivery. It was quite inspiring.
Chris Jack was a perfect foil as Beryl’s patient husband Charlie, and a collection of other gentle cameos including an awkward teenage suitor for Beryl’s daughter. He also made quite an impression as a dancing nun in a pointy brassiere.
Flora Spencer-Longhurst was almost as tough as Binns when playing the little girl stage of Beryl’s life, and then was gawky, vulnerable and charming as Beryl’s daughter Denise from toddlerhood to maturity. She also turned in some lively cameos, leading to a couple of tellings-off from the other actors for overdoing it.
Matthew Heywood almost walked off with the show – and if it had been about anybody else other than Beryl, he would have – with a riotous array of comedy cameos that spanned a dancing nun to Beryl’s mother-in-law to a fanboy policeman in Berlin. With a finely-honed sense of the ridiculous, he bickered with the actors, tried to enlist the audience on his side about rhubarb being boring, ordered the audience to wave their flags during a climatic scene, and never stopped silently commenting on the action with his face and body for a moment.
Bretta Gerecke’s design kept the actors in black cycling lycra, with a striped white top for contrast in the second half. The back of the small stage was crowded with boxes of props that were used in the performance, giving the effect that the play was taking place in somebody’s cluttered garage, and having bicycles everywhere further confirmed that. The pictures that were projected onto the back wall came from an old-fashioned slide projector, and featured real black-and-white photographs and newspaper articles from Beryl’s life.
Kimberley Sykes, the director, kept everything moving in a pacey fashion, and managed to factor in the many passages of dry, technical information in the script without losing theatrical verve. By the time the scene was reached where Beryl’s many sporting achievements and records were being verbally listed, one after the other, the audience were applauding with genuine appreciation – even though two hours previously, they had probably never heard of Beryl Burton.
The playwright Maxine Peake was in the audience, and she seemed pleased. This is a special production for her, as Peake grew up in Bolton, and her first professional performance was at the Bolton Octagon. “Like a well-oiled bicycle wheel, things have come full circle” is her comment on the back of the “Beryl” flyer.
Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 23/9/19
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