THEATRE REVIEW: Beryl - The Coliseum Theatre, Oldham.

"To be honest, I'd never heard of her until I got this job. Well, before Googling her before the audition for this job", reports one of the cast in the opening prologue of the fabulous 'Beryl' written by Britain’s national acting treasure Maxine Peake. It was originally written by her as a radio play but was commissioned by the West Yorkshire Playhouse to coincide with the Grand Depart in Yorkshire of the Tour De France in 2014.

So, who was Beryl Burton? The greatest British sportswoman to ever to have lived the play reveals. Peake was inspired to write the play after reading Burton’s biography. She was the most non-famous, famous female cyclist the world has ever known. Mostly due to the fact that women’s cycling wasn’t an Olympic sport until 1984 when Beryl was 47. Her career and success in road cycling had then spanned three decades across the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s with far too many plaudits to list. But, incredibly she held the 12 hour record for more than 40 years after she set it in 1967. She was a world champion but also a wife, daughter and mother. She died in 1996 aged 58 of heart failure whilst ironically out cycling and delivering her birthday party invites. The play definitely brought the celebration and achievements to the forefront of this Yorkshire legend with humour, wit and sharp comedic writing by a tour-de-force of a production.

The production uses a star cast of just four actors in all roles (too numerous to count): Tori Burgess, James Lewis, Charlie Ryan and Elizabeth Twells blew us away with the calibre of their sharp delivery, poignant pathos and fast-paced physical theatre. The play is a set of vignettes performed on a single set by designer Irene Jade. It was beautiful. Bike rims (donated by local charity StreetBikes) are used to decorate the proscenium and create an internal rainbow behind which is a projection of all the settings the play travels through; particularly the rolling Yorkshire countryside. The lighting was beautiful throughout by Will Evans and sound design by Eliyana Evans was perfect.

The scenes whizz through Beryl's Life at break-neck pace, from missing her 11-plus aged 10 due to rheumatic fever and then being blighted with a weak heart for the rest of her life. She met her husband Charlie at work and took on his love of cycling. She was determined to prove the doctors wrong and ‘make her mark’ which was a recurring motif in the play. She had a daughter, Denise, who grew up to share her mother and father’s love of the sport and went on to become a successful cyclist too.

Burton’s determination was portrayed as quite single-minded at points, working in a rhubarb field in the off-season to maintain her physical strength, and riding and competing with, and often beating, men to equal them in achievement. Her husband and road riding club are the backbone to her success by supporting her endeavours. She famously rode to and from races as they had no car or money for the train.

Reading this back to myself, thus far, the play doesn’t sound that exciting, but by gosh it was! It was engaging, funny, heart-warming and a rollercoaster of emotions. It took me back to my uni days of TIE (Theatre In Education) and 'Plays For The Poor'. The use of small space and a small cast playing all parts; adaptive and talented actors changing role, accent, and appearance effortlessly with just a single prop was just a delight. The audience laughed heartily throughout as the actors slipped effortlessly from solid, clear and focussed narration to diverse, multi-part playing, bike- and scene-shifters and prop carriers. It was fantastic, fast and very, very funny. It did not miss a beat and the audience absolutely sucked it in and couldn’t get enough of it. I bet the cast don’t have to go to the gym very often with the amount of effort they were exuding throughout; particularly in the very real biking scenes with fixed bikes on rollers. There was some very clever direction from resident Coliseum director Chris Lawson and assistant director Rachel McMurray and impressively creative use of space and set. We almost choked laughing at the hotel scene with the bellboy and concierge.

The play had a lot of factual content but the pace and style never allowed us to get bogged down or cerebrally overloaded. It was shown through the inventive use of the video projections by designer Grant Archer, props, signs and narration and action. One memorable factual moment was the humour of the scene where Beryl famously offers the leading male bike-rider in a race, Mike McNamara, a liquorice allsort as she passed him on the way to setting her 12-hour time trial record. The northern audience at the Coliseum - not too far from Yorkshire- appreciated lots of northern ‘tips of the hat’ and if you are a Peake fan you can definitely hear her voice in the play.

It was a beautiful play, well written, magnificently acted and produced and was stunning to see. And… we now know who Beryl Burton was. Catch a ticket to see this hilariously funny play if you can. 

Reviewers - Kathryn Gorton and Beryl Brennan
on - 10.5.22