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Review: Beryl

If Yorkshire had been counted as a separate country at the 2012 Olympics, it would have finished twelfth in the medals table; what Beryl shows us, in dealing with the life and career of cycling legend and Yorkshire lass, Beryl Burton, is that sporting excellence in the Dales is far from a recent phenomenon. Maxine Peake’s play, directed by Rebecca Gatward and performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, is a timely venture, as this year’s Tour de France sets off from Leeds and remains up north for the first two stages. The timing could not be more perfect, but the play rises far above being a mere footnote to the excitement of the Grand Départ.

Beryl Burton is a remarkable figure, made even more remarkable by her obscurity. “I hadn’t heard of her until I got this job,” one of the play’s cast of four announces, metatheatrically. “I hadn’t heard of her until I looked her up on Wikipedia, before I went to the audition,” another replies. This exchange positions Beryl as an underdog not only in the traditional sporting sense of having begun her career a rank outsider, but also in being relatively unknown, and un-talked of, to this day.

The play does an excellent job of making the case for Burton’s greatness, telling her story with wit and tenderness. It’s a classic sports movie trope to position the protagonists in a struggle against seemingly overwhelming odds, but, as it turns out, Beryl Burton was exceptional not only in the sheer quantity of her awards and world records, but also in the number of obstacles she faced on the way to achieving them.

Balancing the necessary – and long overdue – recognition of Beryl Burton’s achievements with a play that works in dramatic terms is a difficult trick. It is one managed excellently for the most part, but for some of the play’s second half, it loses something of its dramatic power in dwelling perhaps too long on a period of consistent success. The piece finds its way by the end, but perhaps would have benefitted overall from having some material from the second half cut, and from running without an interval.

Ultimately, this is a story that is worth telling, and that is told well; the play has warmth, humour, and an evident and contagious admiration and enthusiasm for its characters. There’s an appropriate and unique ‘Yorkshire’ feel to the piece – maybe it’s the dry wit and no-nonsense story-telling, or maybe it’s the morally obligatory swipe at Tory regional arts cuts – but there’s also something in the story of Beryl Burton which goes beyond the obvious local interest. Like all good underdog stories, it speaks to the desire in all of us to believe that ordinary people, people like ourselves, can perform superhuman feats – be they emotional or physical – of strength and of endurance.

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