Babbies, bairns, and a fondness for Brown Ale. It’s an emotional reunion for the audience at Grand Opera House tonight for Dick Turpin Rides Again.
Berwick Kaler, York’s legendary dame, has come out of retirement, bringing with him pantomime faves Martin Barrass, Suzy Cooper, AJ Powell and David Leonard.
The plot is bizarre, it’s eccentric, it’s what keeps crowds coming back to the writer, director and dame year after year.
Dick Turpin is giving up on his bad boy ways, but he must survive the day to thwart Vermin The Destroyer’s evil plan. Along the way, there’s romance, a villainous rap and plenty of puns. It’s a fresh fairytale for this veteran cast.
Suzy Cooper, our principal girl, is on top form. She’s an infectious ball of energy and gives my favourite performance of the night as a vampire fledgling – which I would briefly describe as an unbeatable impression of a bat. Suzy does it with so much gusto, that one of her fangs falls out on stage, much to the delight of the audience.
David Leonard, York’s cherished villain, Vermin the Destroyer, whose mission is to, you know, destroy everything, finds his mic playing up. Berwick strolls off stage causally to pick up a handheld one, rewinds the script and starts again in good humour.
It’s when things go wrong that this motley crew really shine. And things do, inevitably, go wrong.
Newcomers and regulars alike feel like they’re not just the watching on as the audience, but active participants in the whole charade. The ad-libs feel authentic, and the giggles, unscripted.
“It’s rubbish, but it’s our rubbish,” says Berwick. We know it.
There are a few ‘WTF’ moments thrown in for good measure. A crocodile that wants a fish, a Brummie hero who turns out to be a ‘Garlic’ (rhymes with Dalek). I would say you couldn’t write it, but Berwick Kaler can, and he does.
The set and costume design is appropriately extravagant and there’s an exciting bit of production magic thrown in with a flying horse, Daniel Conway (Dick Turpin) offers up some impressive vocals at this point, too. Credit should be given to the choreography, performed by a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ensemble, and the house orchestra leaves nothing to be desired.
While the overall performance isn’t as energetic as it once was, there’s still homage to the slapstick scenes from productions past, and the show makes up for it with its bizarre plot, hilarious bloopers and, of course, a bumper dose of nostalgia just in time for Christmas.
As long as this cast keeps selling, I’m sure we’ll all keep buying.
Dick Turpin Rides Again is on at the Grand Opera House, York until 9 January.
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