The Truth at Apollo Theatre

I have seen several Florian Zeller plays and films over the years (I even wrote about some of them) and that experience made me want to see The Truth. The names Mangan and O'Hanlon helped too.

Knowing that the dialogue would be the key feature I went for a cheap seat rather than a good one and paid a very modest £35 for Section Grand Circle

Row A Seat 2. I could not quite see all of the stage due to a rail but it was more than good enough and well worth the money.

The Truth is all about when to tell the truth and when to lie, either to protect yourself or to protect the person you are lying to.

The play starts with a simple truth, Stephen Mangan's character is having am affair and we know this because they are in bed together. After that things get more and more complicated as the lies and the truth mix unexpectedly. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that one of the complications is trying to work out who knows about the affair, if indeed they do know, and how they found out.

The dialogue is full of dramatic and unexpected twists delivered brilliantly by the whole cast who twist things further with subtle expressions that we can see but not the person they are talking to.

It is all rather brilliant and extremely funny. The audience laughed, gasped in surprise and clapped all the way through.

Paranormal Activity at Richmond Theatre

xxxxI see almost everything at Richmond Theatre and while Paranormal Activity did not sound like my sort of thing the West End pedigree and my general love of theatre was enough for me to fork out £50 (more than I usually pay) for my usual seat Dress Circle A 24.

As expected, it was a play that used special effects and loud noises to carry most of the drama and little was asked of the characters or of the actors who played them. For some reason a lot of the noise was by grunge legends Soundgarden, and I was happy with that.

The play carried on much as expected with a series of possibly paranormal events that were well staged and often unexpected. Scenes like the one on the sofa got loud gasps from the audience.

Like 2:22 – A Ghost Story, and other similar plays, it ends with a big twist that was most unexpected, in this case that was largely because no clues had been given.

Paranormal Activity was a two-pony, special effects and a surprise ending, and while it was entertaining enough it was not very substantial.