Shakespeare it isn’t. But there was a touch of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre about the Royal Court last night, where Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels had its official opening night.

Shakespeare wrote for ordinary people, used dirty jokes in his comedies, had eccentric characters and spoke to the people of his day. They loved it and got involved.

So it was at the Royal Court where local writers Dave Kirby and Nicky Allt created a comedy which spoke specifically to Merseyside audiences.

They also loved it and got involved with cheers, shouts of surprise and, above all, laughed generously at the situations before them.

This was Liverpool in the build-up to its year as European Capital of Culture facing the people of Wirral still celebrating its postcode change in 1999 when they lost the L and got the CH prefix on their letters.

Basically, the Wirralians thought they were finally free of Liverpool and back in Cheshire. Oh no.

As the plot makes clear, many Wirralians work in Liverpool, go back home through the tunnels and then criticise the Scousers.

This is personified by the character Anne Twacky, a Heswall housewife who complains to the GPO when she receives a letter with the L postcode and complains again when a chap working under the name Countryside Conservatories, who is building one for her, turns out to be from Liverpool.

It’s all a little silly but works gloriously well in this lively comedy which pushes things to the comedy limit with broad performances and gags galore.

It is helped by an excellent pit band, led by musical director Howard Gray, which delivers familiar songs with new words, the narration using new words sung to the tune of I Walk the Line.

The tale starts moving when three regulars at a Liverpool café named Rennies contemplate a way of keeping Wirral people out of Liverpool in the way the comedy title suggests.

Meanwhile, back in Heswall, the plot flashes between the Heswall home and Rennies, as Mrs Twacky and her friends become increasingly critical of Liverpool.

While Mrs Twacky is played in glorious and outrageous blue rinse fashion by Eithne Browne, her female friends are played by blokes in drag, Andrew Schofield and Francis Tucker. Subtle it isn’t.

Eventually it all ends with a new version of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with The Blue Rinse Mansions of The Wirral.

Back in Liverpool, the gorgeous Maggie (played by Suzanne Collins) delivers one of the best comedy songs of the night, Somewhere Over the Mersey, in which she dreams of a rich man in Wirral (with a few naughty words).

Indeed, there are several naughty words spread throughout the evening but nothing too awful, just enough to raise several laughs when they appear.

While the script is rather special, the performances are great – Andrew Schofield as the conservatory builder Dickie Lewis is outstanding, Roy Brandon’s Western-loving Dennis Twacky hilarious and Carl Chase’s narrator (and eventual rebel) Nick Walton wonderful.

Former Liverpool Everyman director Bob Eaton directs with a sure touch and Billy Meall’s sets work well.

Davy Edge as postal worker and rebel Gerard Gardener gets his big moment singing Bridge Over Troubled Waters (he is referring to the Runcorn Bridge) and Adam Keast and Francis Tucker add their own cameos.

In the event, it is the script which works, full of local references, really good jokes and a story which gets its local audience going.

The show was a surprise hit last year in the same venue. Now back for twice the run, it looks set to do the same again.

Philip Key

Liverpool Daily Post - July 17th 2007