Pedal Pusher

Fittingly for a play about the gruelling three-week long Tour de France, Pedal Pusher is an intense one-hour and thirty-five-minute – a marathon by Fringe standards. Lucky then that this epic has been undertaken by the dexterous Theatre Delicatessen. Flexing every inch of their imaginative muscle, Pedal Pusher is a theatrically meaty look at what it takes to be a master of this demanding and crippling sport.

Three of the titans of cycling, Marco Pantani, Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich, are brought to rippling life by Tom Daplyn, Alexander Guiney and Gareth Richardson. Through the eyes of Josh Cass’ calm journalist we see the five-year period from 1997 when these leviathans dominated the Tour. 

Director and writer Roland Smith has grabbed this Tour by the balls and presents us with a series of innovative and dynamic stagings to describe each pivotal moment of the race. The set changes are a little rusty and Sophie Mosberger’s forceful design seems a little unfinished, but the dynamism of this strong cast brings the Tour vividly to life.

From Richardson’s softly introspective Ullrich to Daplyn’s artistically explosive Pantani, there is a real sense here of the chameleon nature of this sport. Movement director Tony A has created nuanced and sophisticated ways to communicate the thrill, exhilaration and exhaustion of this epic chase and Smith’s writing—a mixture of interviews, imagined meetings and recorded events—is compelling. The show could stand to lose a couple of stages, though.