Bedroom Farce at the Rose Theatre

I've not found the programme at the newish Rose Theatre in Kingston that inviting and so, while I go to the Orange Tree in Richmond regularly, I only made my first visit to the Rose recently.

What finally pulled me in was Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn who, experience tells me, knows how to be funny.

The surprising initial problem was booking the tickets online with a website that would have felt out of date five years ago. The main problems are that you cannot see which seats you are buying and you have to go right back to the start of the purchase transaction every time you want to look at other options.

The Rose is an oddly shaped theatre due to it being some spare space left to the Council within a block of expensive flats and turning it into a theatre was an after-thought.

As a result the stage protrudes into the auditorium which is not very deep but is high. For some reason there is a pit area at the front with no fixed seating, you are encouraged to bring your own cushion!

My seat on the far left side offered a good view across the stage and of the auditorium.

The play was not what I expected in that it was a comedy but not a farce; no trouser-less men hiding in wardrobes here. The bedroom bit of the title was true though and all the action took place in three bedrooms that were alongside each other on the stage.

There was not much of a plot but there was a lot of humorous dialogue that kept things moving along at a sprightly pace but without reaching the anticipated climax. In the end the lack of a plot, some under-par acting and the nature of the theatre itself left the feeling that a reasonable evening out could, and should, have been much better.

It's going to take something quite special to drag me back to the Rose but I will keep my eyes open for that special thing and am prepared to give the Rose another chance one day.