Originally published by L.S. Media. March 24th 2010.

Cast: Isia Bennison, Emily Butterfield, Matt Connor, Phil Corbitt, Laura Cox, Andy Cryer, Michael Hugo, Rosie Jenkins, Alan McMahon, David Newman, Rob Pickavance, Matthew Rixon, Richard Standing, Andrew Whitehead.

After the success of Medea earlier in the year, Northern Broadsides have come back once more to Liverpool with the intention of staging a difficult piece of work for the delight of the Playhouse audience. This time they tackled one of English literature’s defining moments, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

From start to finish, the actors never gave anything less than a superb performance and it showed as the enthralled audience was kept on the edge of their seats as each story unfolded in front of them. Everybody will have their own personal favourites when it comes to this particular piece of work and for the stories that were portrayed, nobody will have left disappointed.

From the bawdy comedy of the Miller’s tale, the Christian allegory of patience in The Clerk’s Tale and the sumptuous weaving of storytelling in the Wife of Bath, come tales that are still relevant today.

The huge cast, one of the largest to have come to the Playhouse for a while, were spot on with performances, the difficult language easily overcome and helped by having some of the best acting ability available to any troupe.

In particular Mike Hugo, who was last in Liverpool when he played the Maniac in The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was on top form once more and his portrayal as the disease ridden cook was an absolute gem.

Also Emily Butterfield, who in her first production for the company stole some of the more comedic scenes, especially her reading of Alison in the Millers tale, certainly the bottom kissing scene will stick in the mind of everyone who saw it for a long time.

Much praise must go to the Playhouse for having the courage to put this play on, in lesser hands it might have been more difficult to imagine it working as well.

An absolute gem of theatre production; wonderfully reworked by Mike Poulton and directed excellently by Northern Broadsides stalwart Conrad Nelson. It does beg the question, is there nothing that this group of players cannot do?

Ian D. Hall