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REVIEW: BRICK UP THE MERSEY TUNNELS

By Francisco Esteves ⋅ April 12, 2008 ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Normally, just the simple mention of ‘going to the theatre’ might send shivers down your spine. Your girlfriend or boyfriend (or even worse, your parents) want to drag you out, fork out 30 quid, all for the pleasure of enjoying 3 hours of the most boring play / musical you ever watched. That’s what I thought, until I came across Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels.

After a highly successful launch in 2006, this hilarious comedy by Dave Kirby and Nicky Allt is back to the Royal Court Theatre for the third year in a row – and I would recommend it a million times!

So what’s it all about? Well, it is a story about three scousers, Dickie Lewis (Andrew Schofield), name-dropping conservatory builder, Nick Walton (Carl Chase), the tunnel worker, and Gerard Gardner (Davy Edge), a postal worker, who, after being badly treated by Wirralian Anne Twacky (Eithne Browne), the posh Heswall lady who looks forward to coming home from her work in Liverpool, have an axe to grind with the Wirral. They end up meeting each other in a café on Dock Road and forming a partnership called ‘The Kingsway Three’, with the simple task of closing off the Wirral once and for all.

The play is full of local references and plays on all the sensitivies between ‘proper’ Scousers and ‘fake’ Scousers. And, although every year, there have been a few tweaks to the show, the storyline remains essentially the same.

So if you’re looking for a night of comedy, but still wanting to seem cultured, I would highly recommend this play. If you miss it, you’ll most certainly regret it.

Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels is on at the Royal Court Theatre until Saturday, 12th April.