REVIEW: MAYBE DICK at White Bear Theatre 19 – 23 March

‘a celebration of old school British smut’ ★★ ½

John Hewer’s one-man show MAYBE DICK is playing at the White Bear Theatre until 23^rd March, and then touring every place where a peripatetic thespian can unfold his whaling ship set and unfurl his non-stop stream of double, triple, quadruple entendre. It’s really single entendres in fact. Captain Ahab wants dick. If that’s the sort of relatively harmless smut that tickles your fancy, John Hewer has streams of the stuff. He delivers it well, he adopts entertaining characters, and he manipulates a very clever trucked set with considerable skill. It is intricate, surprising, beautifully made. It features surprising Swiss Army Knife transformations – Ahab’s peg leg turning into a telescope was particularly entertaining.

But the driving force of the piece is a celebratin of old school British smut.  There are Two Ronnies skits, a constant undercurrent of Carry On films, and an inability to pass up the chance of a knob gag if any object is even vaguely phallic.  Very old fashioned, very non-pc, very expertly presented, and there’s a beautiful seagull puppet called Steven.

Photography credits:  (top of the page ) Emily Appleton, (below) Philip Marshall Jnr.

MAYBE DICK is produced by Hambledon https://www.hambledonproductions.com/

MAYBE DICK is the latest piece of new writing to tour from Hambledon Productions, a Lincolnshire based theatre company of seventeen years that specialises in classic comedy and new, local writing. 

Reviewed by Christ Lilly