Tony and Twizzle is a comic, game show-style play about an eccentric married couple named Anthony Chalmers (Maggie Fox) and Isobel “Twizzle” Trilling (Sue Ryding). Over the years, this fictional T.V. couple have written and performed in various television programmes, their present show being “Celebrity Wheelie Bins”, in which they pull an item from a wheelie bin and get the public to decide which celebrity threw away that item. (What a great idea for a game show!)
The play sends up morning chat shows superbly in a clever and humorous way and the two actors work so well together and carry off a great show.
I would recommend this play, mostly to adults, but I think children of twelve years and above would enjoy it just as much!
By Rebecca Harrison, age 13, Canon Lee School
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On Thursday the March I went to see “*/Tony and Twizzle-The Glory Years/*” here is the basic plot:
Tony and Twizzle are a married couple of actors who are talking about all the highlights of their careers and acting them out. They have been in shows such as “Celebrity Wheelie Bins” and “Wednesday night Thursday morning” and act out their favourite scenes switching from character to character.
The show started off on a really funny note with Twizzle entering in a pretty wheelie bin being pushed by Tony. I liked how they had set out the props (and were acting like) like they were being Richard and Judy.
It was good how they had made fake pictures and used real play names and twisted them round a bit to fit the play. They had a few mss ups at the beginning but they were really good at covering them up and made the scene really funny. Their play and film scenes were really good how they had simple costumes and little elements to change but came out playing a completley different character. I really liked the one (I can’t remember it’s name) when they had the upstairs and downstairs on the screen and LOADS of character changes! The first half ended really well with one of their “hits” which was really funny (and surprisingly well sung) I also liked the part with the smoke machine and watching sort of trying to blow it away and staying on their stools 😀 . That was a really good place to end the first act and keep us laughing and wanting more.
I thought the idea of answering questions was really good and it must be really fun not knowing which ones were going to come up (knowing it could be almost ANYTHING!) and having to improvise. It was especially funny since the first question read out was from someone I was coming with (we were Special K and had framed our teacher! 😎 ). It was really funny how they kept getting questions about the market or something and refusing to answer them! And also before that Twizzle (it may have been Tony aswell I’m not sure) miming that song and then not singing a bit and making it obvious. Also the dancing that had been put with it (it was sort of bad but REALLY funny!). They just seemed to be natrually funny and I think they probably could have gone through with the play without learning a script! The other plays were funny in this part too especially the one on the farm with the cow. It was sort of discustingly funny! That dog was really cute and the Crufts act was really funny.
Celebrity wheelie bins seemed really random but really funny. But I really liked the part at the end when Twizzle found out that Tony had been seeing Marissa and the part with the dummy of Tony (that had been a voodoo doll of him earlier in one of the plays). It was really funny watching them fighting behind the screen and then being dragged off in the wheelie bin!
I came to this show thinking that it might not be suitable for girls of my age (I’m 12 so I didn’t get a few of the jokes) but I actually found it really funny and if was given the chance would happily jump at the chance to see it again! I think maybe my age would be about one of the youngest people who should see it (maybe 10 at the youngest) but I did really enjoy it. I think I would give the show maybe 8.5/9 out of 10.
P.S Since we had framed our teacher with the special K thing we found it really funny how at the very end Tony mouthed “Special K 5 minutes!” and pointed backstage!
P.P.S It was also really interesting to see the realy actors without their costumes and stage make-up on and how they actually answered the questions-it was a shame they had to catch a train….
From Grace Metheringham – Canon Lee School
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Once again, a group of student ambassodors from Joseph Rowntree School were going to the theatre, this time to see “Tony and Twizzle – The Glory Years”, a comedy by LipService. As we gathered in the foyer, I remember discussing what we were expecting from the show – What was it about? Who was in it? None of us really knew what the show was going to be like, so went in feeling quite apprehensive.
The show got off to a good start – a warm welcome and a few laughs. In my opinion, they slightly overdid the jokes about the region and local area – they must have mentioned those dreaded words “the north” abuot a million times in the first five minutes. However, once they got past this, they started the promised programme of talking about their careers and showing extracts from their films. The multi-roling and quick changes in character were impressive, and added to the comedy value. However, for our generation, the spoofs were quite dated, and alot of the references went right over our heads – we didn’t know what shows these sections were supposed to be spoofs of, and so didn’t quite understand the humour. After the first half, we had very mixed opinions about the show.
However, after the interval, the feel became more relaxed, and we all enjoyed it a bit more. The comedy wasn’t just based on the old TV shows and films – they had a section where they answered the audience’s questions, which made us feel more involved. The only downside to this idea was the re-introduction of the location jokes – there were only so many times they could say “this question is from someone from…Easingwold” whilst looking disdainful, before the joke wore thin and we stopped laughing. However, in general, the second half was alot funnier than the first, and alot more enjoyable. Although I wouldn’t go and see this show again, the actresses were very good comic actresses and put on a very good performance.
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Melissa Handley
Tony and Twizzle- The Glory Years, 5th March 2009, Theatre Royal
This piece of theatre was a great crowd pleaser, with roaring laughter throughout! The celebrity couple were a satirical celebrity couple that showed the lifestyle of celebrity culture, but in a way that was behind the scenes, and actually showed a really struggling couple trying to be in the world of ‘celebrity’. Twizzle desperately believing she was and is successful and Tony now an alcoholic who never had any large roles anyway!
The action swapped between the two just talking amongst themselves and the audience, and acting out sketches of what they have been in. From this, I do think that the piece was more aimed at an older audience, as the sketches used weren’t particularly well known by myself and younger people sat around me. The best responses came from older members of the audience, although the younger members did react well to certain parts of the show such as the improvisation and the comedy purely between the two actors on stage as they spoke as Tony and Twizzle! The show was still an intriguing piece to everyone though, as no one really knew what to expect, and everyone understood on some level the spoof of celebrities, or of the sketches shown. And the ability for both actors in the play to become so many different characters set the play alive, and really showed the great talent of Sue Ryding and Maggie Fox, able to play so many different characters!
The set was very basic, appearing as just a set of chairs and stools with a screen in the centre, but it became much more lively in parts of the play. The screen was used throughout, with the magazine front cover photo displayed to remind us of this ‘successful’ and ‘glamorous’ lifestyle. It created laughter just by itself, when the faces of Tony and Twizzle were photo-shopped into other celebrity pictures. The screen that wheeled on was also used well, transforming into different outfits and characters, and even a cow created!
For me, the best thing about this show was the improvisation of the actors. There were only a couple of times when sketches didn’t quite go to plan, but it was recovered really well and with even more humour added. The audience’s questions to the celebrity actors were another opportunity for Maggie and Sue to show their skills, and respond to the truly random questions proposed to them! For example, when they were asked would they rather have hands where their feet are, and feet where their hands are, or eyes where their ears are, and ears where their eyes are!?
The look back over the so-called ‘glory years’ made for a great comical piece, as they really weren’t glorious! The ‘warts and all’ view meant it was much more entertaining, with all credit to the actors themselves as they were what made the piece a success. Even the girl behind the tech desk was laughing all the way through, again and again…showing that this isn’t a tiring comedy, and new things come out in each performance!!
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Tony & Twizzle – York Theatre Royal – Oliver Addison
Maggie Fox and Sue Riding have yet again put on another brilliant comedy stage production. They are most definitely the next in line to have their name put up in lights like ‘Morecambe and Wise’ and ‘Laurel and Hardy’.
From the moment I first looked at the programme I could tell that this would be a clear comedy spoof.
Their latest comedy includes two main characters Anthony Chalmers and Isobel (Twizzle) Thrilling, both of which are played by the two comedians very well indeed. The fact that they had to play many different characters each during the clips made it even more humorous.
One of the comedy spoof shows they performed was, Wednesday night, Thursday Morning (Saturday night, Sunday morning). The night was cram packed full of laughter and jokes. The jokes appealed to all ages, but the younger minds understood them quicker. I believe that celebrity wheelie bins would make a brilliant television programme and be a huge hit from day one if it ever became one, as I enjoyed trying to guess the name of the owner of the bin.
Overall it was a brilliant comedy and I would love to see it again, I would most definitely recommend it to anybody who likes a laugh and a giggle and as for finding out what they are going to do next… I can’t wait!
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Tony and Twizzle is a refreshingly light hearted and witty play, with their hilarious bickering, humorous insults, and their ludicrous dancing!
Their entrance in the wheelie bins was fantastic, and i thought their ability to change their roles so swiftly and comically was amazing, while they were re-playing all of the plays they had starred in, and where they first met each other.
After the break, Tony and Twizzle answered some questions, some being outrageous, which i think really connects them to the audience, and has great laugh-out-loud moments. When talking to Maggie Fox (Tony) and Sue Ryding (Twizzle), they said that they love showing something different each time, and even admitted to watching all of the Upstairs, Downstairs progammes.
In conclusion, Tony and Twizzle is absolutely marvelous, although my only criticism is that sometime’s the comedy can be very daft, although utterly incredible!
Fran Kirby, Year 8, Canon Lee School
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This production was an appallingly funny spin off about two celebrities’s named Toni & Twizzle. The Richard & Judy style show was cleverly played by Maggie Fox and Sue Ryder, Yes both women! These two were also the genius’s behind all of the comedy, and with a bit of help from director Mark Chatterton, they came up with one heck of a show. Apart from the few cheesy moments it had the show was a huge success, with everyone in the audience in stitches at one point or another.
However, I do have some criticisms about this show, the show was suitable for all ages, but I do not think all ages quite understood the full concept. At first I was a bit confused as to which one was the man, and then when the jokes came, I barely recognized them, there was only a few I understood. It was a bit old-fashioned, I got the whole “celebrity wheelie bin” thing but the “some vets do ave em’ I didn’t have a clue. I think a slightly older audience would have appreciated it more. I could hear my teacher’s wife in laughing extremely loudly so I think she got it a bit more than I did.
The whole storyline however it thought was brilliant. I loved the troubled stars and the secret scandals, all very entertaining and extremely funny. I LOVED the wigs! The portal of these two characters was brilliant I don’t think I could say that for the rest of the characters though, it all went a bit wrong after a scene with a mother talking to her son and the girl he fancied, a nice soap moment there though. Although again that was done to be funny, it was like a production gone wrong. Every comedy I’ve seen has never being shown (to have gone wrong) well enough in that way before. The clever sounds and lighting could be to make up for the lack of comedy in themselves but both ways worked well and I found it hilarious. Saying that I did think they were funny just needed something else and that worked for them. If you just put them on a stage and stripped them down of wigs and sounds it wouldn’t work. But I suppose that’s all part of the celebrity lifestyle and glamour that they portrayed so well. They made it so they could act as well as be funny, because when a comedy act try to life out characters sometimes it can go wither really wrong or be really funny, and it defiantly was funny.
When I first began to watch it I didn’t really think they were going anywhere with it. But when the audience caught onto the plot and there characters it was brilliant. I loved the continued jokes because when they repeat it you laugh more, almost as if you understand it more, even though it was funny the first time round. I loved the ending; I won’t give it away, so go and see it!
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Tony and Twizzle-The Glory Years is a play by LipService, aka Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding. The two actresses took the audience for a trip down memory lane of the celebrity lives of Anthony Chalmers and Isobel “Twizzle” Trilling.
As soon as the pair entered onto the stage, one dressed as a man in a suit with an orange face, the other a woman with blonde curls and a blue dress, you could just tell that this play was going to make you laugh. First, they began taking the mickey out of York, which was quite funny, but only enough to pull my mouth up slightly at the corners. The rest of the audience seemed thoroughly amused, however. Perhaps I was missing something other than the actresses saying ‘bath’ in a long, droning way.
What surprised me was that Maggie Fox, who was playing Tony, did not put on a man’s voice. It was very much like an ordinary woman’s voice, maybe slightly higher. After giving a brief introduction, the pair drifted into the first film that Twizzle had starred in.
Throughout the performance, Maggie and Sue swapped and changed wigs, hats and outfits extremely quickly, disappearing behind curtains or billowing washing to do so; whilst switching voices frantically when it came to one person acting out two characters. Furthermore, they changed their voices according to the area that the TV Programme had taken place, for example the Yorkshire Dales (where they became farmers with strong accents.)
The play seemed the sort that could easily go wrong, what with the many changing outfits and voices. However, there were no slip-ups, though there could have been one where Sue forgot to put on a wig. But, they made a joke of it as if it was all part of the performance, which left me wondering whether it was indeed a slip-up or not..
At the beginning of the second part of the play, there was a Question and Answer section, in which the audience could write down a question for Tony and Twizzle and they would pick one out of a bin and answer it. By doing this, the audience were much more included, plus, the actresses had to improvise, being unaware as to what the question would be, which, I thought, was a very good idea.
The set was simple-two chairs and a table (Richard and Judy style), a fold-out curtain in the corner where the characters changed into other people, and a large projector, which changed its picture, depending on what programme the pair was acting out. Also, the sound effects that were put into the performance seemed feeble, but I’m not sure whether that was to emphasize the fact that all the programmes that Tony and Twizzle had been in were not so good. The sounds included things such as tapping of feet (when Tony and Twizzle tap danced).
This play is aimed at adults. As all of the programmes that Maggie and Sue were joking about were in the 70s and onwards, I didn’t have a clue what they were on about!!! I would recommend this to adults over the age of 25; though the play is good and funny, children don’t get the full explosion of how funny it should be, because they have never heard of any of the programmes.
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Tony and Twizzle, the Glory years is a brilliant spoof of Richard and Judy, set on a talkshow style studio in the present day. In a ‘warts and all’ production Tony and Twizzle reflect on their past, unearthing happy memories and shocking truths. Tony (Maggie Fox) talks age and alcoholism where Twiz (Sue Ryding) speaks of a breakdown when her voice was criticised by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This clever comedy includes three mini sketches which are actual spoofs within one big spoof. Funny anecdotes of their ‘tragic’ past are seemingly never-ending for this wonderful pair.
A fun part was the Q&A session where you got to ask question like “What do you think of the market plans for Selby?” and similar questions, as being Northern was described as ‘being full of grit’ there-on making making anything Northern a bit of a running joke in the show. Even Häagen-Dales, the utterly Yorkshire ice-cream played a part, being the sponsor for one of the sketches which were set in the Yorkshire Dales (and partly based on Kes).
The acting was just as exaggerated and as the show, complete with orange tan and scary make-up; overdone outfits and shiny, shiny white teeth. I liked the imaginative idea of changing costume quickly by standing behind a screen with the clothes already hung up, immediately changing your character. But no spoofed out game show-night would have been complete without the cheesy jingles and overdone special effects!
Tony and Twizzle seemingly had it all, and, after 4 marriages released a love song ‘You can count on me’ which they sang to us, on stage, complete with actions.
I thought to improve they could’ve made the jokes slightly more universal, as a lot of the jokes went a bit over your head if you’re kind of younger. I felt they could’ve done more with the Q&A session to make it more engaging, but it was a nice touch anyway as it added to make the performance seem more personal.
Overall, though, I thought it was great fun for maybe an evening out with your friends or family, but not to worry if you don’t always get the jokes, as they are strangely funny anyway.
By Vanessa Rhodes Bernays (Year 7)
Star rating: ****
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Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding are a dynamic duo that have been writing and performing together since 1985 bringing you shows such as Jane Bond and Withering Looks. And now they’re back with Tony and Twizzle: The Glory Years.
Isobel (Twizzle) Trilling and Anthony (Tony) Chalmers take the audience for an exclusive and hilarious look back on their ‘glamorous’ showbiz careers. The lively couple are not an obvious match- Twizzle (Maggie) who is 9 years Tony’s senior is a talkative and creative character opposing to Tony (Sue) who is frank and to the point. Tonty’s red socks and bad suit paired with an alarmingly orange face is so convincing that Sue Ryding divulged- “some people actually think I’m a man.”
As the pair reminisce about their past lives they perform several sketches of past TV shows/ films they have ‘starred’ in, such as ‘Wednesday night, Thursday morning,’ ‘They’ve got a lot up top’ and the spectacular Celebrity wheelie bins which Maggie claimed to be ‘not too extreme, perhaps it could be possible.’ These skits provide faultless comedy due to the pair’s ambitious roles- sometimes having up to six roles apiece.
The use of pictures in the show is effective as they draw the audience in; also the adventurous props and clever costumes provide steady humour. The interaction with the audience is hugely successful and as the evening wears on the innuendos become more blatant and the jokes about York and the North more pointed and risky.
The comedy is consistent and the audience seem to enjoy every moment and when the pair leave the audience are left wanting more.
To conclude, the show was a great success and I would highly recommend it, however the audience is very much part of the show so if you are not quite ready to take part in a production maybe this is not the show for you.
By Emma Nariani
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