Review: The Daily Bread, Badapple Theatre, on tour until October 25

It is a one-man show and that man is Colin Moncrieff , a Glaswegian actor, raconteur and professional clown who once worked with a French baker in New York and has run his own cake business in Scotland.

Colin’s prowess with flour, water, salt and yeast, which emerged as he toured with Badapple in Laurel & Charlie, prompted the Green Hammerton company’s writer-director Kate Bramley to see the potential in writing a play that would combine all his skills.

The result is The Daily Bread, a night of Machiavellian subterfuge, comedy, multiple role-playing, clowning, the aforementioned live baking, banking, and “a little bit of politics”, as Ben Elton was wont to say too often.

The nimble Moncrieff is playing August de Ville, a master baker whose bakery is the talk of the tiny village of Bottledale.

However, could his sumptuous sponges and beautiful buns merely be a facade to throw everyone off the scent that his name is so uncannily similar to that of the newspaper magnate who hid the truth behind the Bottledale bank crash?

Is it a case of better the de Ville you don’t know, or will the truth come out. Bramley adds more and more characters, from a Women’s Institute narrator to a dour Yorkshireman, and in the frantic first half, Moncrieff’s rhythm is a little too rushed, even if his bread loaves rise perfectly.

He finds his feet much better in the second half, sending up Nigella Awesome and a Mafia boss, and especially when his clowning skills find him playing both de Ville and the lumbering thug who is chasing him in a scene that Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin would surely have loved.

Bramley also has fun at the expense of both UKIP and the Tories, as Moncrieff hits his straps, even if ironically his timing was out for his undercooked second baking tin!

The Daily Bread, Badapple Theatre, on tour until October 25. Visit badappletheatre.com for venues, starting times and booking details