DICK TURPIN. To 31 January.
York.
DICK TURPIN
by Berwick Kaler.
Theatre Royal To 31 January 2009.
Mon-Thu; Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat Sat & 31 Dec-2 Jan 23.30pm Fri 4.30pm (except 2 Jan).
Audio-described 2, 22 Jan, 3 & 24 Jan 2.30pm & 7.30pm.
BSL Signed 10 Jan 2.30pm, 15 Jan
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
TIKETS: 01904 623568.
www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 December.
You know what’s coming – and you know you’re going to love it.
Once again the Theatre Royal is packed-out for panto. The reason’s summed-up near the end, when writer, co-director (along with Damian Cruden), Dame and York institution Berwick Kaler thanks the audience for being there, especially in financially difficult times. For this is a show that values its audience.
No-one feels threatened when required to catch one of the Wagon Wheels annually flung from the stage, or their message is read out by Kaler or actor Martin Barrass. Kaler’s keeps up a connection throughout: “You know what’s coming, don’t you?” he inquires, planting a huge bottle for the audience to guard (“Naughty, naughty. That’s Auntie Betty’s,” we’re to tell would-be purloiners).
We do know, and we don’t. The routines are so familiar for audiences who return over the decades, they’ve become flexible enough for us to trust the ever-reliable, ever-loveable Suzy Cooper to take the bottle. “It’s behind you,” is done for us, eliding with an “Oh yes, it is,” session. Kaler is both Berwick and Betty, asking what we think of this year’s costume, reminding us of his age – advising us it would be sick to laugh at a pensioner plunged into a tank of water during the obligatory slapstick scene.
Of course, that’s a prelude to general laughter as a door opens simply to send the too, too confident Senior Citizen tumbling, skirts aloft, for a thorough dunking. But he doesn’t mind, and we love him for it.
That bottle is taken to help our hero Turpin. For Dick’s not the villain. That dishonour goes, as always, to the satiny feline David Leonard. What he wants is revenge for two decades’ or more humiliation. He tries turning York into a Goth city (it looks a Shambles). So the discourse of York panto over the decades carries on.
Yet a newcomer needn’t feel excluded. They’ll soon be made to feel one of the family, to return and find Leonard ever-defeated, Cooper perpetually youthful, Kaler forever merely middle-aged, and to cheer along when a gold-wrapped Wagon Wheel’s delivered from the stage to a nonagenarian granny in the stalls. Roll on, Berwick.
Betty Turpin: Berwick Kaler.
Vivian Turpin: Martin Barrass.
Count Vermin De Vile: David Leonard.
Alma Turpin/Old Mother Shipton: Suzy Cooper.
Dick Turpin: Vincent Gray.
Sheila Shipton: Julie Anna Castro.
PC Clod Hopper: A J Powell.
Black Bess: Jamie Harris + Brendan Lucas etc.
Chorus: Naziha Arebi, Elise Bowd, Jamie Harris, Clair Lees, Brendan Lucas, Carl Richardson.
Babbies: Josh Benson, Saffron Hartley, Jack Hoare, Natasha Hoare, Laura Wilson, Charlotte Wood/Shannon Ellerton, Sophie Reynolds, Matthew Rhodes, Isobel Nutbrown, Cameron Shaw, Catherine Yeoman.
Directors: Berwick Kaler, Damian Cruden.
Designers Phil R Daniels, Charles Cusick Smith.
Lighting: Richard G Jones.
Musical Director: Rob Thorne Jnr.
Choreographer: Kay Shpeherd.
2008-12-31 19:21:57