Rarely has a play developed such an affinity with its audience as Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels.

Back for the third year in a row, the comedy by Dave Kirby and Nicky Allt is now as much about its audience as the play.

They yell, they cheer, they rise up and they just love this piece of local entertainment as if part of it themselves.

And why not? The comedy about bricking up the tunnels to keep those snooty people from Wirral from invading their city touches a particular sensitivity in Liverpool.

That said it’s not nasty, not too brutal, just very funny in a Carry On sort of way. The gags are clever, often near the knuckle but always with a point.

The same cast has remained from day one and now inhabit the characters so much you wonder if anyone else could do it.

In character they react to the audience, give them sly, knowing looks and behave like the old friends they have become.

Eithne Browne as posh Heswall lady Anne Twacky is as outrageous as ever, critical of everything to do with Liverpool, Roy Brandon as husband Dennis as downtrodden as ever (his worm-turning scene gets one of the evening’s biggest reactions).

Andrew Schofield squeezes every comedy moment out of Scouse braggart builder Dickie Lewis, Carl Chase as Nick Walton – the tunnel worker with the billiard ball head – gets his own moment and Davy Edge as postal worker Gerard Gardener collects sympathetic ahhs for his hapless attempts to woo leggy cafe owner Maggie (Suzanne Collins whose bright-eyed perfor-mance collects a few whistles).

There have been a few additional tweaks to the show but the story remains the same.

The music, although in a comic vein, is beautifully sung and the play, directed by Bob Eaton, remains as funny as ever – a true legend of Liverpool theatre.

Philip Key

Liverpool Daily Post - March 19th 2008