THE boys are back in town and this time they are ‘just doing their job’.

The job in question is presenting Dick Tracy, which Le Navet Bete will be doing at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton on March 15.

The ‘lads’ were last in Taunton way back in May last year, when they took the stage with their production of Dracula-The Bloody Truth, which proved a “rip roaring roustabout of the comedic play proved infectious to the audience”.

Now, they are returning to Somerset with their very own stage adaptation of the most iconic square-jawed cop and hero, Dick Tracy.

In the blurb for the show, it states: ‘Dick Tracy promises to ‘have the bad guys in handcuffs and the audience in stitches’.

Production manager Alex White, who used to perform on stage but who is now involved in the technical side, said they decided to do a Dick Tracy play as they were interested in Film Noir and different styles of cinema.

“What we wanted to do was a gritty cop drama but we wanted plenty of colour and imagination,” he said.

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“We aimed to do something which people would be familiar and a lot of people remember the Dick Tracy film made by Warren Beatty.

“We wanted to use this colour as people remember the bright yellow trench coat and there is real style about the original cartoon drawn by Chester Gould.

“We wanted to skew all this and make it very visual.

“What people will get with this version of Dick Tracy is something which is fun, very daft and very silly.

“We do pick up on a number of traits and for the show like the one used by Dick Tracy of ‘just doing my job’.”

Alex explained that when audiences come and see the show they could expect a lot of raucous messing around and there is a moment when the bad guys get board and this he said is when anything can happen.

When you see a Le Navet Bete show there is plenty of physical comedy which has a touch of the Marx Brothers about its presentation and clowning around.

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Speaking about this type of comedy, Alex said: “There is control and intent and we work very hard to give the impression that 99 per cent of it is going wrong.

“We want it to look like this and that is part of the craft.

“The clown exists on the edge of failure and there is a constant battle to succeed.

“It is a real interesting concept to look at the clown who is just about to fail but he brings it back at the last moment.

“And as a result we constantly play this see-saw game and keep it as close to the edge as we can all the time.”

What Le Navet Bete is good at is telling a story, a story which engages the audience through a strong narrative and the physical comedy.

By doing this, the theatre group connects with all ages from six to 65 and has garnered a strong fan base.

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When their recent Christmas show, A Christmas Carol, was in Plymouth they had people travelling from Derby, Wakefield and Manchester to see it.

Alex said: “The golden rule for the group is to have fun. If we have fun the audience has fun.

“When we are on stage we can connect with the audience.

“We are taking them on a journey with us.

“We do break the fourth wall and this allows us to engage with the audience.

“We do it gradually so they become part of the show and when it happens they are on our side.

“For us it works really well and it means when it does the audience accept us and trust us.

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“As a group we have been together since we were at university (University of Plymouth).

“We are very supportive of each other and we all have a strong friendship and this makes its way into our work.

“What has been the biggest change for us is we (five of us) used to have to sleep in a van when on tour.

“We had a Luton Box van which we converted and put in five beds inside in order to save money and would park up in a lay by where we would sleep.

“We used to have to ask the promoter for an advance so we could petrol in the van.

“We don’t do this any more but we still love touring and going out to 15 different towns or cities at a time.”

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La Navet Bete team up once again with one of the UK’s most exciting comedy directors John Nicholson (Peepolykus) and supported by Arts Council England.

Dick Tracy is at Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton on Thursday, March 15.

Tickets are on sale and cost £13 / £11 Concs. / £8 Students.

Buy them either by going online at tacchi-morris.com or call the box office on 01823 414141.