SMELLING A RAT

Walking into the auditorium the audience were met with an on stage set of a very expensive, well furnished, penthouse style apartment. With the usual attention to detail one always gets at Grange it was impressive and promised much for what was to follow.

This play by Mike Leigh has moments of Whitehall farce with characters moving in and out of wardrobes, bathrooms and pretending to be what they're not.

It is described as an 'anti-farce' by the author and he also says it is "observations of numbing and boring conversational banality"  Indeed it was and unfortunately, for most of the play, I did not find it at all funny. Disturbing "yes" but funny "no."

I see from the programme that Director David Stone was connected in many ways with the production - properties, set design and he was also front of house when I arrived. David is a very talented actor and I prefer to see him on stage.

Unusual for Grange the audience leaving the play was not buzzing with what they had seen and I didn't feel that this was one of the best plays Grange has presented over the last few years. I am sure it was the play and not the production and although it was certainly challenging for all taking part it was not for me. That is not to diminish the performances from the stage and the 5 actors taking part (David Weller, Rob Bissett, Liz Webster, Sam Evans and Rachel Holmes) gave good performances. I look forward to seeing them all in future productions

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