DICK TURPIN REVIEWS
The Times
The Stage
Broadway World
East Anglian Daily Times
Public Reviews
Whatsonstage.com ****
Theatreworld
Oxford Times
The Times ****
Libby Purves
The fact and fiction of the famous highwayman’s life is examined seriously - but there are also some good tunes
Some criminals have always been romanticised — poachers, smugglers, even Krays. It’s an eternal temptation. Here, five spiritedly physical actor-musicians, lit in moody chiaroscuro on a spare, scaffolding-and-plank set against blackness, swing and perch and play and argue over the legendary king of highwaymen.
The Dick Turpin of legend defied the law, robbed the rich and beguiled their daughters, finally galloping his mare Black Bess from London to York with a posse in pursuit. The real man was a burglar who tortured householders, a rapist and petty villain. There was no Black Bess, no epic ride. All the romantic bits were made up a century later by a Victorian novelist, William Harrison Ainsworth.
In this engrossing treatment Daniel O’Brien, the director Abigail Anderson and (not least) the composer Pat Whymark take on fact and fiction in tandem. With minimal props, musical outbreaks and rapid changes of persona, they build the show round an argument between Ainsworth (Julian Harries), Thomas Kyll, an 18th-century historian armed with court records (Richard Pepper), and Bayes (Morgan Philpott), a publican who knew Turpin and is suspected by the others of having actually been his fence. Jack Lord plays a brutal Turpin, and Loren O’Dair takes on all the women and, with extraordinary dancer’s grace and evocation, the equally central role of Black Bess. Her leap over the Hornsey Turnpike and long gallop to York are genuinely thrilling; so is the sense of the Great North Road unreeling as the posse cry: “Men of Hornsey! . . Men of Enfield! . . Men of Spalding! Seize the fugitive!”
But this small exquisite Regency playhouse, in its latest production, earns most respect by a central seriousness. It asks whether Ainsworth’s belief that “myth colours life! I do not lie, I enrich!” outweighs Kyll’s passion for historical justice. “No heroism, no grandeur, just petty theft in Essex!”
Contemporary records of Turpin’s brutality are uncompromisingly played out: the brief testimony of a brutalised maidservant is more chilling than many an explicit stage rape. And the music, with old lyrics and new, I loved. If ever a folk song has moved you, this will.
The Stage
Kevin Berry
Dick Turpin’s fabled ride from London to York is staged with stunning theatrical skill in this tour from the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmund’s company.
Loren O’Dair is the mare Black Bess with nothing more extravagant than a black cloak. She suggests prancing rather than emphasises it and the effect is utterly thrilling. She leaps an imagined spike-topped turnpike gate with a simple yet stunning movement. The pursers crouch, incessantly and rhythmically stamping their boots. This examination of the life of Dick Turpin is from the same creative team behind last year’s acclaimed touring adaptation of Cider With Rosie. Examination? Yes, it has three storytellers giving their own versions of Turpin’s life. What is fact? What is fable? What is mere imagination? Significant events are staged, one event being acted out from two differing viewpoints.
The actors all play a range of instruments in a production in which music is a vital, living element. Composer Pat Whymark, who is frequently called on by companies based in East Anglia, has created stirring narrative ballads, lusty songs and poignant laments. They are all played with vigour and sung with absolute clarity.
Daniel O’Brien’s dialogue is vivid and colourful and has authentic criminal slang from the period. O’Brien is the pen name of Colin Blumenau, the Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal’s artistic director.
Yorkshire audiences will wonder why there is no mention of Swift Nick Nevison, a local highwayman whose flamboyant exploits somehow became the exploits of Dick Turpin, but we can forgive this oversight.
The Times
Libby Purves
In this trade you watch a lot of stage rapes. Weary ennui sets in. It’s too easy a shock, used too often. But in this engrossing play, returning mid-tour to its parent theatre, it was an unexplicit and dignified moment from an 18th-century court record that brought home the horror: the choked testimony of a maidservant.
Her assailant was Dick Turpin. Some criminals have always been romanticised: poachers, smugglers, the Krays. This fascinating shoestring show takes on such a legend with thoughtful vigour. Five spiritedly physical actor-musicians, lit in moody chiaroscuro on a scaffolding set against blackness, swing and perch and play and argue over the legendary highwayman.
The Turpin of legend defied the law, robbed the rich and beguiled their daughters, finally galloping his mare, Black Bess, from London to York with a posse in pursuit. The real man was a petty thief, casual torturer and rapist. There was no Black Bess, no epic ride. The romantic bits were made up a century later by a Victorian novelist, William Harrison Ainsworth.
The writer Daniel O’Brien, the director Abigail Anderson and (not least) the composer Pat Whymark take on fact and fiction. They build the show around an argument between Ainsworth (Julian Harries), Thomas Kyll, an 18th-century historian armed with court records (Richard Pepper) and Bayes (Morgan Philpott), a publican who knew him and may have been his fence. Jack Lord is Turpin; Loren O’Dair takes on all the women and, with extraordinary dancer’s grace and evocation, the equally central role of Black Bess. Her leap over the Hornsey Turnpike and long gallop to York are genuinely thrilling; and so is the sense of the Great North Road unreeling as the posse cry: “Men of Hornsey . . . men of Enfield ... men of Spalding! Seize the fugitive!”
The music, with old lyrics and new, has all the power of folk song, and there are light moments. But it earns most respect in its central seriousness: does Ainsworth’s belief that “Myth colours life! I do not lie, I enrich!” outweigh Kyll’s passion for historical justice?
Broadway World
Up there with Jack the Ripper and the perpetrators of Great Train Robbery in the gallery of mythologised English criminals sits Dick Turpin, highwayman. How Turpin reached such an exalted position in English culture is explored in Dick Turpin's Last Ride (at Greenwich Theatre until 1 October and on tour).
Three chroniclers of Turpin's life come together to debate how a life such as his should be interpreted: Thomas Kyll insists on facts—and mighty unpleasant ones they are; William Ainsworth romanticises a life of freedom lived in the early Eighteenth century as Britain stood on the verge of being subjected to the iron fisted discipline of capitalism and the misery of the factories; and Richard Bayes, who purports to know the "truth" because he knew the man. As the three recount key incidents in Turpin's life, the scenes are enacted on a multi-level stage with the company of five actors taking on countless roles as the associates, enemies and victims of the highwayman. Ultimately, as was the fate of highwaymen, it all ends in biers, as first Turpin's gang and then, after a pursuit from London to York during which he shows more tenderness to his beloved mare, Black Bess, than ever he did to any human, Turpin swings for his crimes.
Daniel O'Brien's script and Pat Whymark's music place tremendous demands on the cast - switching from costume to costume and accent to accent as they flit from character to character, singing, playing an array of musical instruments, fighting, dancing, even becoming a dog and a horse - but they rise to the challenge and hold the kaleidoscope storyline together. Loren O'Dair is particularly impressive in the roles of the women Turpin used and abused unfeelingly and the horse he used and abused lovingly. Abigail Anderson's direction is less successful - with over two hours of dialogue, characters are too often static, announcing their thoughts and intentions, rather than revealing them through the drama.
Though it's probably 30 minutes too long, Dick Turpin's Last Ride is an extraordinary mix of song, storytelling, history, myth, literary interpretation, mime and acting that, like Turpin himself on his ride to York, just about reaches its destination in one piece, having cleared many obstacles along the way. For many, Dick Turpin is Sid James in "Carry on Dick" or Adam Ant in his "Stand and Deliver" video: this play with music rescues the man - and his victims - from caricature and sets them within a pre-industrial culture that, in the lanes of rural England and the riots of urban England, is not as far below the surface as we might imagine.
East Anglian Daily Times
Dick Turpin gallops on stage in premiere What a great gallop! Somebody once said: “When the truth spoils a good legend, stick to the legend.” And that’s what the battle is all about in this rollicking new musical looking back at the life of the famous highwayman in a kind of 3D. It’s truth versus invention.
We have William Harrison Ainsworth defending his best-seller Rookwood – written a century after the event - in which Turpin rides Black Bess overnight 200 miles from London to York and boasting about how his books are outselling Charles Dickens. Posterity, he reasons, can embellish the truth because novelists are allowed to rescue lost reputations.
Ranged against him is Thomas Kyll, a historian, also from the 19th century. He brandishes the transcript of the 1739 court case that sent the robber to the scaffold, insisting that only the facts are valid. And there’s also Richard Bayes, a publican who knew the highwayman and wrote The Genuine History of Dick Turpin. But he’s a rogue and as liable to be free with the actuality as anybody else.
Cleverly, as each puts his case, they all move into the actions that support their search for the real Dick Turpin, with an edgy script that drifts purposefully into melodrama here and there, all cantered along by melodic songs that continue telling the story. And the whole thing is punctuated by brilliant little bits of comedy.
We are quickly aware that Ainsworth’s story is complete hokum. Turpin never made the ride and there was no such horse as Black Bess. But his reasoning and polemics are so sharp that we know that truth is likely to come in a poor second in this horse race.
Ainsworth, played with great aplomb by Julian Harries, gets some lovely lines. Accused of fabrication, he answers, “I don’t lie, I enrich.” The cast of five portray a whole range of characters and animals – and they all play musical instruments so that often, with a line-up of accordion, banjo, violin, guitar and mandolin, there’s a full-scale folk band stomping on stage.
Turpin is basically a nasty piece of work and Jack Lord gets right into character as he is chased relentlessly, excitingly through the whole second half. Loren O’Dair is his courageous talking horse and her song Bonny Black Bess is a delight.
Richard Pepper as Thomas Kyll and Morgan Philpott’s as Richard Bayes are also strong and, on a simple scaffolded, trap-doored set, the five literally swing into a score of colourful characters with tremendous ease and effect and Pat Whymark’s songs and ballads of romance, life and death give the show a lovely lyrical dramatic drive, with The Game of High Toby (highway robbery) especially good.
Public Reviews ****
There’s two sides to every story. Dick Turpin. Romantic hero or thief and murderer? As history passes and tales get embellished what’s real and what has been embellished to fit the agenda of the storytellers themselves?
Just a few days short of the 306th anniversary of his baptism we still owe much of what we think we know about this countries most infamous highwayman from countless romanticised films and novels.
Daniel O’Brien script instead takes a look at the real man and the contradictions in the more populist and rose tinted versions. In a tavern, years after Turpin’s execution, three authors are disputing the true version of events. William Harrison Ainsworth has published a glowing account of Turpin’s adventures that have outsold Dickens, Thomas Kyll has taken a more investigative approach while Richard Bayes claims to have the inside story but how he came across it is a mystery.
Through the eyes of these three writers we piece together the true facts of Turpin’s life, migrating from burglary to his more infamous highway robbery. It proves to be a much darker tale than we are used to with Turpin and his gang happy to turn to violence, extortion and even rape to get their means. By the time Turpin moves into more familiar ground of the highwayman all notion of some populist hero has gone out of the window.
Composer Pat Whymark weaves music throughout the piece with a series of songs and ballads that manage not only to combine an authentic feel of folk melody of the time but also provide a haunting timeless quality to the piece. The musical score transforms an already gripping story into a thrilling piece of theatrical narrative.
Director Abigail Anderson’s production delivers much from a simple setting and small cast making great use of Dora Schweitzer’s scaffold multi-level playground. As reflects the constant movement of Turpin’s flight, Anderson keeps the pace fast and fluid, building up tempo and claustrophobia as the net tightens on Turpin. Kitty Winter’s movement adds to the sense of equine flight while Mark Howland’s lighting provides beautiful vistas of shadow and texture.
The five strong ensemble work perfectly, creating over 55 characters between them. Jack Lord is suitably dark and brooding, though tempered with some surprisingly tender touches evident in his bonding with his trusty mare Black Bess, brought vividly to life with a sense of equine grace by Loren O’Dair. Julian Harries, Richard Pepper and Morgan Philpott as the three disputing authors (and a multitude of other townsfolk) also impress with their quick-fire characters.
Forget any preconceived notions you may have, Dick Turpin’s Last Ride proves to be a gallop through the life of one of Britain’s most notorious villains but a ride filled with vivid characters, a gripping script and a lush, evocative score that will leave audiences breathless. The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds has shown that you can create theatrical magic with relatively limited resources, but as they prepare to send this highwayman back out onto the road it is on the back of a thoroughbred.
This is one ride you should definitely be in the saddle for.
The Public Reviews #2
The romantic notion of English anti-hero Dick Turpin is of gentleman highwayman, all tricorn hat, flashing pistols, wooing the ladies, out-thwarting the men and riding off into the moonlight with a pocket full of silver and hearty laugh.
However, in Daniel O’Brien’s latest outing for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Turpin is painted in a very different light. There are tricorn hats and pistols sure enough, but the ladies are more likely to be raped and the men viciously beaten and murdered by a brutal and barely literate thug and his henchmen.
Abigail Anderson’s production is snappy, thoroughly engaging, and her five-strong cast clearly relish their involvement in what is as far away from a cosy period romp as it’s possible to be. At 2½ hours long, the unforgiving bench seats of the Theatre Royal might have made this an uncomfortable experience but the punchy script combined with Anderson’s quick-fire touch makes it fairly rattle along and is worth a little posterioral distress.
O’Brien has given a launch-pad to the story by featuring three characters – William Harrison Ainsworth, Thomas Kyll, and Richard Bayes – three real life writers, all of whom see the murderous Turpin through very different eyes. Journalist Kyll is all fact and objectivity, while Bayes recounts the rogue, and Ainsworth the idealistic ‘knight of the road’. In reality, Ainsworth wasn’t even a contemporary of the others but, in this case, the historical accuracy of the frame is secondary to the powerful picture it contains.
In Dick Turpin, Jack Lord creates a swaggering beast of a man bereft of even one redeeming virtue, a far cry from the chocolate box blackguard described by Ainsworth in his pot-boiler, Rookwood. As the many who fell victim to Turpin and his numerous criminal gangs in the early part of the 18th Century would attest, Ainsworth’s charmer was a complete fiction compared with the cut-throat of reality.
Richard Pepper and Julian Harries portray the bookish Kyll and Ainsworth respectively, while Morgan Philpott is the former pub landlord-turned-writer, Bayes. Bringing a female if not feminine touch to the proceedings is Loren O’Dair. In all, the five actors splendidly portray 55 characters – each to perfection and with a clarity of individuality to be envied.
To provide a viable Black Bess, the options are limited. A mute Equus-like mount or a War Horse puppet, perhaps? Either would have been favourable to a full-blown panto clopper. However, Daniel O’Brien has come up with an inventive fourth option and O’Dair becomes an anthropomorphic delight, viewing Turpin’s exploits through his steed’s eyes.
Those familiar with the East Anglian performing arts scene will be no strangers to the work of Pat Whymark. For decades, Whymark has created rich textures of both words and music for several theatre companies. On Dick Turpin’s Last Ride, she has stamped her very identifiable mark of evocative and multi-layered folk music that brings O’Brien’s book to life in the most exquisite manner.
Heidi McEvoy Swift’s rag-bag wardrobe may not be as historically accurate as the purists would like but it matters not in the context of turning the motley ambience of Dick Turpin into a visual feast under Mark Howland’s expert lighting palatte.
Undoubtedly, Dick Turpin’s Last Ride stands firmly on its own two feet and delivers in spades.
Whatsonstage.com
Anne Morley-Priestman
The Game of High Toby. It sounds so romantic, doesn’t it? Conjuring visions of a velvet-masked and dashing highwayman, silken-clad and thoroughbred-mounted? Perhaps dancing in the moonlight with an attractive coach passenger and then gallantly forgoing his booty for this innocent pleasure? Wrong. Very wrong.
[Daniel O’Brien], the nom-de-plume of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds artistic director Colin Blumenau, has fashioned a ballad opera – with a clever score by Pat Whymark which combines folk pastiche with a very contemporary sound – from the story of Essex-born Dick Turpin. Turpin was made into something of a hero by the 19th century historical novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, who basically invented the central episode of the ride to York on Black Bess.
We meet Ainsworth (Julian Harries) defending his fiction against the criticism of a “all the facts and nothing but the facts” historian Thomas Kyll (Richard Pepper) and rough-and-ready pub landlord Richard Bayes (Morgan Philpott). Cynicism about all these masculine approaches to the subject comes from a barmaid ([Loren O’Dair].; O’Dair also plays Black Bess in a marvellous performance which creates the illusion of a horse while never tipping over into anthropomorphism.
Then there’s the anti-hero himself. Turpin’s first trade was as a butcher and he cut his criminal teeth poaching deer before moving on to violent burglary. Jack Lord makes him dangerous and rough-edged, even when being Ainsworth’s character rather than that of Kyll and Bayes. You would have to go further than the distance between East Anglia and York to find a cast which can act, sing and play a variety of musical instruments as well as this one does.
Director Abigail Anderson has always had a sure touch with the Georgian period. She, with Whymark, movement director Kitty Winter and designer Dora Schweitzer, balances the dark of actuality with toe-tapping vigour. “I do not lie. I enrich. That’s the difference” maintains Ainsworth at one point. Turpin’s story has no heroism in fact and, truthfully, very little in fiction. Somehow it doesn’t really seem to matter
Theatreworld
The reputation of a person after their death can be viewed in a different and often more positive perspective than during their lifetime. This is the theme of the brand new musical play which depicts the exploits of the highwayman (we call them a robber today!) Dick Turpin. The five multi talented actor musicians take on several roles and the music style is in the form of toe tapping folk which had you known the words would probably have wanted to join in.
Wanting to romanticise the villain but 100 years after his death was the Victorian Novelist William Ainsworth played by Julian Harries. No stone was left unturned by him in demonstrating how ‘true facts’ can be achieved through embellishment of what little is known. Don’t we call this spin nowadays? Julian was so convincing in this role.
Taking him on was Richard Pepper who played the historian Thomas Kyll who would hear none of Ainsworth’s fabrication. He based his findings on fact including newspaper cuttings of the times and letters. Of course Ainsworth always had an answer that was never too convincing.
Kind of in the middle was Richard Bayes the author who was played by Morgan Philpott. His inside knowledge of Turpin’s antics were always questionable.
Jack Lord played the rogue himself and you could not help but like his ‘sometimes’ mischievous deeds which Ainsworth would glorify as heroic acts. However most of the time you were left in no doubt that Turpin was an out and out criminal, and probably deserved no sympathy.
One of the many roles that Loren O’Dair performed was that of the legendary steed Black Bess who Ainsworth stated had galloped the two hundred miles overnight ride from London to York. Loren’s performance was most graphic and moving and she illustrated so well the bond between man and horse. Sadly like the horse Ainsworth’s theory falls down at this point and becomes a figment of his wild imagination.
The play is an exciting and enthralling experience that is topped by the catchy music and songs. The set is of scaffolding poles fitted at all angles is definitely most fitting for the more harrowing parts of the story, but is also extremely adaptable.
So at the end of the show you decide which ‘truth’ you prefer, but if you only want a story the decision might be just that little bit easier.
Oxford Times
Angie Johnson
I confess to a particular interest in this show as I grew up in Loughton near Epping Forest where 300 years ago Highwayman Dick Turpin did some of his most dastardly deeds. This musical production more than lived up to the old stories, cleverly intermingling various accounts of this controversial figure – the good, the bad and the ugly.
The cast are so multi-talented I hardly know where to begin – they act, sing, dance and play musical instruments (all at the same time on occasion!), which created a wonderful C18th folky ambience - along with Dora Schweitzer’s evocative and clever design. Movement direction, by Kitty Winter, was particularly important as the cast of five played not only a variety of human characters but also animals. Loren O’Dair was exceptionally good as Black Bess, the horse that carries Turpin on his legendary ride from London to York. The rest of the cast were pretty special too - Jack Lord as Dick was wonderfully charismatic yet loathsome, and supporting characters such as biographer William Ainsworth (Julian Harries), henchman Tom King (Richard Pepper) and publican Richard Bayes (Morgan Philpott) were brought vividly to life.
The composer, Pat Whymark, has created a terrific score, to which the performers bring a richly eighteenth-century vibe. In fact, the whole production was particularly well suited to the Theatre at Chipping Norton, which, though not developed into a theatre until the 1970’s, was designed on the model of playhouses from the Georgian era. The whole evening was rather like stepping back in time.
Lots of different and ambitious elements went in to make this intelligent and exciting show and the fact that they all blend so harmoniously together is a credit to director Abigail Anderson’s eye for both the detail and the bigger picture.
The Stage
Broadway World
East Anglian Daily Times
Public Reviews
Whatsonstage.com ****
Theatreworld
Oxford Times
The Times ****
Libby Purves
The fact and fiction of the famous highwayman’s life is examined seriously - but there are also some good tunes
Some criminals have always been romanticised — poachers, smugglers, even Krays. It’s an eternal temptation. Here, five spiritedly physical actor-musicians, lit in moody chiaroscuro on a spare, scaffolding-and-plank set against blackness, swing and perch and play and argue over the legendary king of highwaymen.
The Dick Turpin of legend defied the law, robbed the rich and beguiled their daughters, finally galloping his mare Black Bess from London to York with a posse in pursuit. The real man was a burglar who tortured householders, a rapist and petty villain. There was no Black Bess, no epic ride. All the romantic bits were made up a century later by a Victorian novelist, William Harrison Ainsworth.
In this engrossing treatment Daniel O’Brien, the director Abigail Anderson and (not least) the composer Pat Whymark take on fact and fiction in tandem. With minimal props, musical outbreaks and rapid changes of persona, they build the show round an argument between Ainsworth (Julian Harries), Thomas Kyll, an 18th-century historian armed with court records (Richard Pepper), and Bayes (Morgan Philpott), a publican who knew Turpin and is suspected by the others of having actually been his fence. Jack Lord plays a brutal Turpin, and Loren O’Dair takes on all the women and, with extraordinary dancer’s grace and evocation, the equally central role of Black Bess. Her leap over the Hornsey Turnpike and long gallop to York are genuinely thrilling; so is the sense of the Great North Road unreeling as the posse cry: “Men of Hornsey! . . Men of Enfield! . . Men of Spalding! Seize the fugitive!”
But this small exquisite Regency playhouse, in its latest production, earns most respect by a central seriousness. It asks whether Ainsworth’s belief that “myth colours life! I do not lie, I enrich!” outweighs Kyll’s passion for historical justice. “No heroism, no grandeur, just petty theft in Essex!”
Contemporary records of Turpin’s brutality are uncompromisingly played out: the brief testimony of a brutalised maidservant is more chilling than many an explicit stage rape. And the music, with old lyrics and new, I loved. If ever a folk song has moved you, this will.
The Stage
Kevin Berry
Dick Turpin’s fabled ride from London to York is staged with stunning theatrical skill in this tour from the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmund’s company.
Loren O’Dair is the mare Black Bess with nothing more extravagant than a black cloak. She suggests prancing rather than emphasises it and the effect is utterly thrilling. She leaps an imagined spike-topped turnpike gate with a simple yet stunning movement. The pursers crouch, incessantly and rhythmically stamping their boots. This examination of the life of Dick Turpin is from the same creative team behind last year’s acclaimed touring adaptation of Cider With Rosie. Examination? Yes, it has three storytellers giving their own versions of Turpin’s life. What is fact? What is fable? What is mere imagination? Significant events are staged, one event being acted out from two differing viewpoints.
The actors all play a range of instruments in a production in which music is a vital, living element. Composer Pat Whymark, who is frequently called on by companies based in East Anglia, has created stirring narrative ballads, lusty songs and poignant laments. They are all played with vigour and sung with absolute clarity.
Daniel O’Brien’s dialogue is vivid and colourful and has authentic criminal slang from the period. O’Brien is the pen name of Colin Blumenau, the Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal’s artistic director.
Yorkshire audiences will wonder why there is no mention of Swift Nick Nevison, a local highwayman whose flamboyant exploits somehow became the exploits of Dick Turpin, but we can forgive this oversight.
The Times
Libby Purves
In this trade you watch a lot of stage rapes. Weary ennui sets in. It’s too easy a shock, used too often. But in this engrossing play, returning mid-tour to its parent theatre, it was an unexplicit and dignified moment from an 18th-century court record that brought home the horror: the choked testimony of a maidservant.
Her assailant was Dick Turpin. Some criminals have always been romanticised: poachers, smugglers, the Krays. This fascinating shoestring show takes on such a legend with thoughtful vigour. Five spiritedly physical actor-musicians, lit in moody chiaroscuro on a scaffolding set against blackness, swing and perch and play and argue over the legendary highwayman.
The Turpin of legend defied the law, robbed the rich and beguiled their daughters, finally galloping his mare, Black Bess, from London to York with a posse in pursuit. The real man was a petty thief, casual torturer and rapist. There was no Black Bess, no epic ride. The romantic bits were made up a century later by a Victorian novelist, William Harrison Ainsworth.
The writer Daniel O’Brien, the director Abigail Anderson and (not least) the composer Pat Whymark take on fact and fiction. They build the show around an argument between Ainsworth (Julian Harries), Thomas Kyll, an 18th-century historian armed with court records (Richard Pepper) and Bayes (Morgan Philpott), a publican who knew him and may have been his fence. Jack Lord is Turpin; Loren O’Dair takes on all the women and, with extraordinary dancer’s grace and evocation, the equally central role of Black Bess. Her leap over the Hornsey Turnpike and long gallop to York are genuinely thrilling; and so is the sense of the Great North Road unreeling as the posse cry: “Men of Hornsey . . . men of Enfield ... men of Spalding! Seize the fugitive!”
The music, with old lyrics and new, has all the power of folk song, and there are light moments. But it earns most respect in its central seriousness: does Ainsworth’s belief that “Myth colours life! I do not lie, I enrich!” outweigh Kyll’s passion for historical justice?
Broadway World
Up there with Jack the Ripper and the perpetrators of Great Train Robbery in the gallery of mythologised English criminals sits Dick Turpin, highwayman. How Turpin reached such an exalted position in English culture is explored in Dick Turpin's Last Ride (at Greenwich Theatre until 1 October and on tour).
Three chroniclers of Turpin's life come together to debate how a life such as his should be interpreted: Thomas Kyll insists on facts—and mighty unpleasant ones they are; William Ainsworth romanticises a life of freedom lived in the early Eighteenth century as Britain stood on the verge of being subjected to the iron fisted discipline of capitalism and the misery of the factories; and Richard Bayes, who purports to know the "truth" because he knew the man. As the three recount key incidents in Turpin's life, the scenes are enacted on a multi-level stage with the company of five actors taking on countless roles as the associates, enemies and victims of the highwayman. Ultimately, as was the fate of highwaymen, it all ends in biers, as first Turpin's gang and then, after a pursuit from London to York during which he shows more tenderness to his beloved mare, Black Bess, than ever he did to any human, Turpin swings for his crimes.
Daniel O'Brien's script and Pat Whymark's music place tremendous demands on the cast - switching from costume to costume and accent to accent as they flit from character to character, singing, playing an array of musical instruments, fighting, dancing, even becoming a dog and a horse - but they rise to the challenge and hold the kaleidoscope storyline together. Loren O'Dair is particularly impressive in the roles of the women Turpin used and abused unfeelingly and the horse he used and abused lovingly. Abigail Anderson's direction is less successful - with over two hours of dialogue, characters are too often static, announcing their thoughts and intentions, rather than revealing them through the drama.
Though it's probably 30 minutes too long, Dick Turpin's Last Ride is an extraordinary mix of song, storytelling, history, myth, literary interpretation, mime and acting that, like Turpin himself on his ride to York, just about reaches its destination in one piece, having cleared many obstacles along the way. For many, Dick Turpin is Sid James in "Carry on Dick" or Adam Ant in his "Stand and Deliver" video: this play with music rescues the man - and his victims - from caricature and sets them within a pre-industrial culture that, in the lanes of rural England and the riots of urban England, is not as far below the surface as we might imagine.
East Anglian Daily Times
Dick Turpin gallops on stage in premiere What a great gallop! Somebody once said: “When the truth spoils a good legend, stick to the legend.” And that’s what the battle is all about in this rollicking new musical looking back at the life of the famous highwayman in a kind of 3D. It’s truth versus invention.
We have William Harrison Ainsworth defending his best-seller Rookwood – written a century after the event - in which Turpin rides Black Bess overnight 200 miles from London to York and boasting about how his books are outselling Charles Dickens. Posterity, he reasons, can embellish the truth because novelists are allowed to rescue lost reputations.
Ranged against him is Thomas Kyll, a historian, also from the 19th century. He brandishes the transcript of the 1739 court case that sent the robber to the scaffold, insisting that only the facts are valid. And there’s also Richard Bayes, a publican who knew the highwayman and wrote The Genuine History of Dick Turpin. But he’s a rogue and as liable to be free with the actuality as anybody else.
Cleverly, as each puts his case, they all move into the actions that support their search for the real Dick Turpin, with an edgy script that drifts purposefully into melodrama here and there, all cantered along by melodic songs that continue telling the story. And the whole thing is punctuated by brilliant little bits of comedy.
We are quickly aware that Ainsworth’s story is complete hokum. Turpin never made the ride and there was no such horse as Black Bess. But his reasoning and polemics are so sharp that we know that truth is likely to come in a poor second in this horse race.
Ainsworth, played with great aplomb by Julian Harries, gets some lovely lines. Accused of fabrication, he answers, “I don’t lie, I enrich.” The cast of five portray a whole range of characters and animals – and they all play musical instruments so that often, with a line-up of accordion, banjo, violin, guitar and mandolin, there’s a full-scale folk band stomping on stage.
Turpin is basically a nasty piece of work and Jack Lord gets right into character as he is chased relentlessly, excitingly through the whole second half. Loren O’Dair is his courageous talking horse and her song Bonny Black Bess is a delight.
Richard Pepper as Thomas Kyll and Morgan Philpott’s as Richard Bayes are also strong and, on a simple scaffolded, trap-doored set, the five literally swing into a score of colourful characters with tremendous ease and effect and Pat Whymark’s songs and ballads of romance, life and death give the show a lovely lyrical dramatic drive, with The Game of High Toby (highway robbery) especially good.
Public Reviews ****
There’s two sides to every story. Dick Turpin. Romantic hero or thief and murderer? As history passes and tales get embellished what’s real and what has been embellished to fit the agenda of the storytellers themselves?
Just a few days short of the 306th anniversary of his baptism we still owe much of what we think we know about this countries most infamous highwayman from countless romanticised films and novels.
Daniel O’Brien script instead takes a look at the real man and the contradictions in the more populist and rose tinted versions. In a tavern, years after Turpin’s execution, three authors are disputing the true version of events. William Harrison Ainsworth has published a glowing account of Turpin’s adventures that have outsold Dickens, Thomas Kyll has taken a more investigative approach while Richard Bayes claims to have the inside story but how he came across it is a mystery.
Through the eyes of these three writers we piece together the true facts of Turpin’s life, migrating from burglary to his more infamous highway robbery. It proves to be a much darker tale than we are used to with Turpin and his gang happy to turn to violence, extortion and even rape to get their means. By the time Turpin moves into more familiar ground of the highwayman all notion of some populist hero has gone out of the window.
Composer Pat Whymark weaves music throughout the piece with a series of songs and ballads that manage not only to combine an authentic feel of folk melody of the time but also provide a haunting timeless quality to the piece. The musical score transforms an already gripping story into a thrilling piece of theatrical narrative.
Director Abigail Anderson’s production delivers much from a simple setting and small cast making great use of Dora Schweitzer’s scaffold multi-level playground. As reflects the constant movement of Turpin’s flight, Anderson keeps the pace fast and fluid, building up tempo and claustrophobia as the net tightens on Turpin. Kitty Winter’s movement adds to the sense of equine flight while Mark Howland’s lighting provides beautiful vistas of shadow and texture.
The five strong ensemble work perfectly, creating over 55 characters between them. Jack Lord is suitably dark and brooding, though tempered with some surprisingly tender touches evident in his bonding with his trusty mare Black Bess, brought vividly to life with a sense of equine grace by Loren O’Dair. Julian Harries, Richard Pepper and Morgan Philpott as the three disputing authors (and a multitude of other townsfolk) also impress with their quick-fire characters.
Forget any preconceived notions you may have, Dick Turpin’s Last Ride proves to be a gallop through the life of one of Britain’s most notorious villains but a ride filled with vivid characters, a gripping script and a lush, evocative score that will leave audiences breathless. The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds has shown that you can create theatrical magic with relatively limited resources, but as they prepare to send this highwayman back out onto the road it is on the back of a thoroughbred.
This is one ride you should definitely be in the saddle for.
The Public Reviews #2
The romantic notion of English anti-hero Dick Turpin is of gentleman highwayman, all tricorn hat, flashing pistols, wooing the ladies, out-thwarting the men and riding off into the moonlight with a pocket full of silver and hearty laugh.
However, in Daniel O’Brien’s latest outing for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Turpin is painted in a very different light. There are tricorn hats and pistols sure enough, but the ladies are more likely to be raped and the men viciously beaten and murdered by a brutal and barely literate thug and his henchmen.
Abigail Anderson’s production is snappy, thoroughly engaging, and her five-strong cast clearly relish their involvement in what is as far away from a cosy period romp as it’s possible to be. At 2½ hours long, the unforgiving bench seats of the Theatre Royal might have made this an uncomfortable experience but the punchy script combined with Anderson’s quick-fire touch makes it fairly rattle along and is worth a little posterioral distress.
O’Brien has given a launch-pad to the story by featuring three characters – William Harrison Ainsworth, Thomas Kyll, and Richard Bayes – three real life writers, all of whom see the murderous Turpin through very different eyes. Journalist Kyll is all fact and objectivity, while Bayes recounts the rogue, and Ainsworth the idealistic ‘knight of the road’. In reality, Ainsworth wasn’t even a contemporary of the others but, in this case, the historical accuracy of the frame is secondary to the powerful picture it contains.
In Dick Turpin, Jack Lord creates a swaggering beast of a man bereft of even one redeeming virtue, a far cry from the chocolate box blackguard described by Ainsworth in his pot-boiler, Rookwood. As the many who fell victim to Turpin and his numerous criminal gangs in the early part of the 18th Century would attest, Ainsworth’s charmer was a complete fiction compared with the cut-throat of reality.
Richard Pepper and Julian Harries portray the bookish Kyll and Ainsworth respectively, while Morgan Philpott is the former pub landlord-turned-writer, Bayes. Bringing a female if not feminine touch to the proceedings is Loren O’Dair. In all, the five actors splendidly portray 55 characters – each to perfection and with a clarity of individuality to be envied.
To provide a viable Black Bess, the options are limited. A mute Equus-like mount or a War Horse puppet, perhaps? Either would have been favourable to a full-blown panto clopper. However, Daniel O’Brien has come up with an inventive fourth option and O’Dair becomes an anthropomorphic delight, viewing Turpin’s exploits through his steed’s eyes.
Those familiar with the East Anglian performing arts scene will be no strangers to the work of Pat Whymark. For decades, Whymark has created rich textures of both words and music for several theatre companies. On Dick Turpin’s Last Ride, she has stamped her very identifiable mark of evocative and multi-layered folk music that brings O’Brien’s book to life in the most exquisite manner.
Heidi McEvoy Swift’s rag-bag wardrobe may not be as historically accurate as the purists would like but it matters not in the context of turning the motley ambience of Dick Turpin into a visual feast under Mark Howland’s expert lighting palatte.
Undoubtedly, Dick Turpin’s Last Ride stands firmly on its own two feet and delivers in spades.
Whatsonstage.com
Anne Morley-Priestman
The Game of High Toby. It sounds so romantic, doesn’t it? Conjuring visions of a velvet-masked and dashing highwayman, silken-clad and thoroughbred-mounted? Perhaps dancing in the moonlight with an attractive coach passenger and then gallantly forgoing his booty for this innocent pleasure? Wrong. Very wrong.
[Daniel O’Brien], the nom-de-plume of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds artistic director Colin Blumenau, has fashioned a ballad opera – with a clever score by Pat Whymark which combines folk pastiche with a very contemporary sound – from the story of Essex-born Dick Turpin. Turpin was made into something of a hero by the 19th century historical novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, who basically invented the central episode of the ride to York on Black Bess.
We meet Ainsworth (Julian Harries) defending his fiction against the criticism of a “all the facts and nothing but the facts” historian Thomas Kyll (Richard Pepper) and rough-and-ready pub landlord Richard Bayes (Morgan Philpott). Cynicism about all these masculine approaches to the subject comes from a barmaid ([Loren O’Dair].; O’Dair also plays Black Bess in a marvellous performance which creates the illusion of a horse while never tipping over into anthropomorphism.
Then there’s the anti-hero himself. Turpin’s first trade was as a butcher and he cut his criminal teeth poaching deer before moving on to violent burglary. Jack Lord makes him dangerous and rough-edged, even when being Ainsworth’s character rather than that of Kyll and Bayes. You would have to go further than the distance between East Anglia and York to find a cast which can act, sing and play a variety of musical instruments as well as this one does.
Director Abigail Anderson has always had a sure touch with the Georgian period. She, with Whymark, movement director Kitty Winter and designer Dora Schweitzer, balances the dark of actuality with toe-tapping vigour. “I do not lie. I enrich. That’s the difference” maintains Ainsworth at one point. Turpin’s story has no heroism in fact and, truthfully, very little in fiction. Somehow it doesn’t really seem to matter
Theatreworld
The reputation of a person after their death can be viewed in a different and often more positive perspective than during their lifetime. This is the theme of the brand new musical play which depicts the exploits of the highwayman (we call them a robber today!) Dick Turpin. The five multi talented actor musicians take on several roles and the music style is in the form of toe tapping folk which had you known the words would probably have wanted to join in.
Wanting to romanticise the villain but 100 years after his death was the Victorian Novelist William Ainsworth played by Julian Harries. No stone was left unturned by him in demonstrating how ‘true facts’ can be achieved through embellishment of what little is known. Don’t we call this spin nowadays? Julian was so convincing in this role.
Taking him on was Richard Pepper who played the historian Thomas Kyll who would hear none of Ainsworth’s fabrication. He based his findings on fact including newspaper cuttings of the times and letters. Of course Ainsworth always had an answer that was never too convincing.
Kind of in the middle was Richard Bayes the author who was played by Morgan Philpott. His inside knowledge of Turpin’s antics were always questionable.
Jack Lord played the rogue himself and you could not help but like his ‘sometimes’ mischievous deeds which Ainsworth would glorify as heroic acts. However most of the time you were left in no doubt that Turpin was an out and out criminal, and probably deserved no sympathy.
One of the many roles that Loren O’Dair performed was that of the legendary steed Black Bess who Ainsworth stated had galloped the two hundred miles overnight ride from London to York. Loren’s performance was most graphic and moving and she illustrated so well the bond between man and horse. Sadly like the horse Ainsworth’s theory falls down at this point and becomes a figment of his wild imagination.
The play is an exciting and enthralling experience that is topped by the catchy music and songs. The set is of scaffolding poles fitted at all angles is definitely most fitting for the more harrowing parts of the story, but is also extremely adaptable.
So at the end of the show you decide which ‘truth’ you prefer, but if you only want a story the decision might be just that little bit easier.
Oxford Times
Angie Johnson
I confess to a particular interest in this show as I grew up in Loughton near Epping Forest where 300 years ago Highwayman Dick Turpin did some of his most dastardly deeds. This musical production more than lived up to the old stories, cleverly intermingling various accounts of this controversial figure – the good, the bad and the ugly.
The cast are so multi-talented I hardly know where to begin – they act, sing, dance and play musical instruments (all at the same time on occasion!), which created a wonderful C18th folky ambience - along with Dora Schweitzer’s evocative and clever design. Movement direction, by Kitty Winter, was particularly important as the cast of five played not only a variety of human characters but also animals. Loren O’Dair was exceptionally good as Black Bess, the horse that carries Turpin on his legendary ride from London to York. The rest of the cast were pretty special too - Jack Lord as Dick was wonderfully charismatic yet loathsome, and supporting characters such as biographer William Ainsworth (Julian Harries), henchman Tom King (Richard Pepper) and publican Richard Bayes (Morgan Philpott) were brought vividly to life.
The composer, Pat Whymark, has created a terrific score, to which the performers bring a richly eighteenth-century vibe. In fact, the whole production was particularly well suited to the Theatre at Chipping Norton, which, though not developed into a theatre until the 1970’s, was designed on the model of playhouses from the Georgian era. The whole evening was rather like stepping back in time.
Lots of different and ambitious elements went in to make this intelligent and exciting show and the fact that they all blend so harmoniously together is a credit to director Abigail Anderson’s eye for both the detail and the bigger picture.
