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Rumours

Author: Gordon Harris

Information

Date
20th September 2012
Society
Rainham Theatrical Society (RTS Ltd)
Venue
Oast house Theatre
Type of Production
Play
Director
Beryl Lacey

Take it from me anyone that sees the Rats  production of Neil Simon’s, “Rumours” at the Oast Theatre are in for a good Laugh.

This send-up of a posh life is a roit. With a hard-working cast that rarely let a good comedy  line fall flat and so many to deliver,“Rumors” was a laugh from the first entrance.

Neil Simon’s plays like “Plaza Suite,” “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “The Odd Couple,” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs,””Barefoot in the Park” and a musical  “The Goodbye Girl,” have been so popular over the years, so much so that he has had a Broadway theatre named after him.

With  “Rumours,” Neil's scenario is a dinner party with no hosts, no food,no maid and eight guests,and a host with a gun shot wound to his ear lobe,sounds stupid but there would not be a story without it.

Beryl Lacey  worked hard to make this production a success. Comedy is hard enough for starters, but in this comedy, where the funny lines overlap from the start. But succeed she did till the very end..

The story unfolds as the guests arrive in posh frocks.Kathy West and her band of helpers gave us a supreb set,as were  the sound effects  perfectly timed by Neil Balderston and Miles Balderson. Costumes coordinated by Claire Feekings were all colour coordenated and made the actors look posh..Props by Claire were also up to Rats standard even down to the working cop radios.

I do not think it is fair to single out any of the 10 actors that performed this Neil Simon farce,they all worked as a well timed team. Farce has to move at a good pace and this one did just that.

Well done Rats for a fast moving fun filled performance, Neil Simon would be very proud with the way you performed one of his plays to a high standard indeed.

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