The agony and the ecstasy: Cadel: Lungs on Legs at Riverside Studios @cadeltheplay
Cadel comes with a subtitle, “lungs on Legs”, which is what Cadel Evans, Australia’s only ever winner of the Tour De France, was referred to as. Connor Delves, who co-wrote and devised a 70-minute sprint through the pain and glory behind this win, could be called lungs and mouth on legs. He cycles, he emotes, he sweats, he spits and collapses on stage.
He spares no pain in this brisk and thrilling account of a sporting victory that was never certain. Even if you know little about the sport, you feel that you’re there struggling up the mountain for a photo finish. It’s currently spinning at Riverside Studios after playing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Delves performs (and pedals) on a 2011 yellow bike, the same model that Cadel Evans won the Tour on. Watching the piece, it’s hard to work out where the performer ends, and the subject begins. Delves doesn’t look like Cadel, as the footage of the real one at the end of the show shows, but you feel he's captured the man’s essence in this piece. It’s hard to know who you feel more for, the performer or the subject, since he is on his bike for most of the 70 minutes. Even if he isn’t cycling at full power, emotions rarely dip.
Delves grew up in a cycling family, and his father competed alongside Evans in the 1990s. No doubt being born into a cycling family and growing up around professional cycling helps him identify with the lead character. But Delves also draws such a finely detailed character of the man, his childhood isolation, his moods, and his motivation, that makes this story so compelling.
It helps to understand the period in which this cycling took place. The Tour de France was emerging from one of the dirtiest phases in professional cycling history. Dozens of cyclists who dropped dead from heart attacks were dope suspects. Lance Armstrong had yet to admit he was a serial doper and cheat. Others were failing drug tests. The play only touches on this. Cadel was runner-up to the Tour De France. Twice. He wasn’t a drug cheat. He was a freak of nature. And it’s the joy of this freakishness that this piece brings out. We want Cadel to win (even if we know he does), just like we want Delves to do as well.
A simple yet effective staging with production design by Imagine Black that puts the cycle on a circular platform. Lauren Cochrane's video design brings the Tour de France to life as it appears on television. After all, major cycling tournaments are experienced first and foremost on the telly. This piece feels like it could transcend the stage as a television series or movie in the future, but here’s hoping we can keep savouring it on stage.
Proving that theatre and sport can mix, with the right ingredients. Written and performed by Connor Delves, co-written by Steve McMahon, and directed by Mark Barford, Cadel: Lungs On Legs continues at the Riverside Studios until 15 November.
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Photos by Kyle Dax Smith
