Beryl

West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

4/5

COMMISSIONED as part of the 100-day Yorkshire Festival, Beryl is a stage adaptation of a play that actress Maxine Peake originally wrote for Radio 4.

Her affectionate celebration of Beryl Burton — “quite possibly the greatest sportswoman who ever lived” — makes a painless transition to the stage under the direction of Rebecca Gatward.

In her hands there’s absolutely nothing superfluous about a production which is as taut as the hamstrings on the relatively unknown cyclist from the West Yorkshire town of Morley who became five-times world champion and best British all-rounder for 25 consecutive years.

These victories were especially remarkable given that the teenage Burton suffered from rheumatic fever and was warned by doctors to stay away from vigorous exercise. Yet, fuelled by a determination to disprove teachers who said she’d never amount to anything, she went on to pursue a self-funded career.

Bankrolling her passion by working on a rhubarb farm and gaining nutrition from rice pudding in a pre-personal trainer era, Peake presents these trials with a gritty warmth that honours Burton’s northern working-class roots and regional humour. 

Here characters fall in “love at first bike,” raise their handlebars to accommodate a pregnancy bump in a no-nonsense fashion and tackle sporting sexism head-on by overtaking leading male rider Mike McNamara with a chirpy enquiry of “Liquorice allsort, Mac?”

It’s a down-to-earth approach that translates into Naomi Dawson’s workshop set design — a cluster of bikes hanging from the back wall and cycling paraphernalia piled on shelves — and the use of projections to reveal the time period of the scenes. 

There is evocative footage of the rolling Yorkshire Dales, an illustrated history of time-trialling and the headline announcing Burton’s death in the Morley Advertiser.

There’s also a tautness in the four-handed cast, who all play multiple characters as well as being co-narrators. 

The homespun feel befits the tight family unit of Burton (Penny Layden), in which husband Charlie (John Elkington) was her manager, their daughter Denise (Chelsea Halfpenny) who travelled in a sidecar from birth, and Morley Road Club co-member Stan (Dominic Gately) was a lifelong champion.

An inspiring, humorous and gritty production that successfully reclaims Burton from obscurity, the play clearly resonates with a hometown audience. 

There’s also a sense that, if she was alive today, she’d be on the
frontline calling for women to be able to compete in the Tour de France.

Runs until July 25. Box office: 0113 213-770.