The Rat Trap at Park Theatre

I need few excuses to go to Park Theatre and none to see a Noel Coward play so the only question was when to see The Rat Trap and I settled for a Saturday matinee just to be in Finsbury in daylight.

The show was selling very well and so I experimented with the small balcony area for the first time. It was bit of a risk as while some balconied work well, e.g. Young Vic, others do not, e.g. Orange Tree.

That in mind, I went for Park 200 E30 at £39.

The picture below taken from my seat shows that everything was okay and I would sit up there again.

Being a matinee meant I had to find somewhere to have lunch and my memory served me well and I went back to Frame, which I had discovered in November 24, and helped myself to a good sized and very tasty vegetarian breakfast.

I knew nothing of The Rat Trap and was relying on my general knowledge of Noel Coward, including a recent visit to see Private Lives (again). That worked.

The heart of the story was a recently married couple, both writers, trying to find space for each other and also their work. Under this pressure something broke.

This made it a darker play that others of his but the tension was lightened at times by the small group of people around them.

It was all deeply engrossing and I was shocked when the lights went down for the interval and an hour had somehow passed. Time for an ice cream.

The second half continued nicely towards its dramatic ending.

Everything about the performance neatly done, as it had been for the same company's The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 and 2 in the same theatre in 2024 which also used a great cast and an almost empty stage to tell a compelling story.

This was a superb afternoon at the theatre and even a horrendous journey home, I gave up trying to catch a train at Vauxhall because there weren't any, did nothing to spoil it.

Blithe Spirit at Richmond Theatre missed the mark

I am always up for some Noel Coward and as it had been nine years since I last saw Blithe Spirit I jumped at the opportunity to see it again when a pre-west end production arrived at Richmond Theatre.

I jumped early enough to get my usual seat Dress Circle A25 for the opening night offer price of £31. That was a little more than I am used to paying there but the omens were good, not least the inclusion of Jennifer Saunders. I heard in the chatter beforehand that some other front-row regulars had been forced back to row E because of their tardiness and the Dress Circle looked to be sold out.

It was clear from the very begging that this was a different production from the one that I saw before as the opening scene was a maid having difficulty bringing a tray of drinks into the room. Elements of slap-stick pervaded the play from then on and to no good effect.

I think that what followed was an attempt to update the tone of the play and to complement the witty dialogue with less subtle humour. This was Blithe Spirit but not as Noel Coward wrote it.

Of course there is nothing wrong with updating or experimentation and the packed audience clearly loved this Blithe Spirit and Jennifer Saunders' role in it but while I found it entertaining it failed in comparison with my previous experience of it in every department. To give one specific example, in the 2011 production my star of the show was Ruthie Henshaw who played Elvira (a ghost) and in this production the actress playing that role does not even get a mention on the Richmond Theatre website.

I trying to improve Blithe Spirit, or to make it more accessible perhaps, this production lost almost all of the wit and charm that made the original play such fun and putting all the production eggs into the Jennifer Saunders basket meant that it dipped noticeably when she was off-stage, which was a lot of the time.

I did enjoy Blithe Spirit but not as much as I expected and it was not the play that I had gone to see.

Present Laughter at Richmond Theatre

Richmond Theatre is an easy one for me to get too from my new workplace, the 33 bus takes me from the office in Teddington into the heart of Richmond, so I am currently going to all the shows there that have any interest for me, and a Noel Coward play is always going to interest me.

I had to eat first and while I had yet to establish a regular pre-theatre eating place in Richmond the Prince's Head on The Green was good enough and the beetroot and mushroom bourguignon did the trick, which it had the last time that I was there. The same can be said for the pint of Oliver's Island.

Noel Coward obviously has niche appeal and while the theatre was busy it was certainly not full and the average age looked to be somewhere in the 60s. I was a little surprised that there were a noticeable number of under sixties there as Noel Coward strikes me as being decidedly dated in much the way that the far more recent sit-coms from the seventies and eighties are. Similarly I am not sure who reads the novels of Evelyn Waugh these days.

On the plus side, dated can also mean period giving an historical perspective on how we live. After all, "the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there". Also Coward does delightful dialogue which is the main reason that I wanted to see it.

And as it was the dialogue that I was mostly interested I took a punt and went for the very end of the front row in the Dress Circle, Row A  Seat  26 Price £35. I went for this as the premium seats extended across almost the whole row and I did not fancy sending £5 or so for the seat next to mine. The safety rail and the boxes did impinge on my view of the set slightly but not enough to impact my enjoyment. Still, I'll probably not book that seat again.

I would normally show a picture of the view from my seat and of the set but the safety curtain went up and down so quickly this time that I have had to settle with a publicity shot found on the internet. From my seat I could not see the fireplace or the door next to it. Fortunately I did not need to.

Present Laughter centres on a recently middle-aged actor, Garry Essendine (played excellently by Samuel West), who likes playing the field. In this field are a young actress, who has just spent the night in the spare room, his ex-wife and the wife of a colleague (Zoe Boyle). Among those watching the goings on were his long-term secretary (Phillis Logan), an unnaturally happy man-servant and an exuberant maid. The mix of characters and their well observed interactions were the main strengths of the play and the source for much of comedy.

There were also elements of farce with people hidden at various times in the office on the left and in the spare room on the right. A wife hiding from an suspicious husband may not be a new idea but it is one that worked. All the other ideas worked too and the play was humorous all the way through and frequently edged into laugh out loud territory.

Essendine is a role that Coward wrote for himself and he remained centre stage throughout. To use some dated terminology, he was a cad who cared nothing for the women he played with or for the impact that this had on others. In his eyes he was the star and everybody owed their success to him but did not respect him enough for that. Despite his character our sympathies were more with him than against him. This was partially because the wronged women were portrayed as contributing to their own fates, remember this was written in 1939.

The story got messier and more complicated before ending in much the same way that Private Lives did and, like Private Lives, the ending was more a way to draw the play to a close than an ending to a story and it was the journey to this point that mattered far more than the destination. I liked the journey.

Present Laughter was never going to be more that a light treat, like a slice of cake with your afternoon cup of tea, and the simple production and good cast made it a treat to truly savour.

Private Lives at Richmond Theatre

I do not just do edgy modern theatre, sometimes I do gentle classics, things like Private Lives.

Noel Coward is something of an English legend, and rightly so,  and his name was all I needed to see this play.

The other name used to tempt people in was Tom Chambers who had appeared in a number of TV shows that I never watched, like Waterloo Road, and he also won Strictly, which I never watch either. I did, however, see him on stage in Top Hat in 2012.

I had yet to find a regular place to eat prior to going to the theatre pub and after trying The Railway a few times and The Sun Inn once I thought that I would give The Prince's Head on the Green a go. I had eaten there a few times and drunk there many more but never pre-theatre before. It worked well and even though I had to wait a little while for the food, which meant that they were actually cooking it instead of just warming it up, it arrived in good time and was delicious. From pub to theatre was only a three minute walk.

This time I went for a seat in the front row of the Dress Circle, my preferred location, Row A  Seat 5 for which I paid £36.90 (face value £34). A fair price for a good seat.

From there I could see the balconies of two posh hotel rooms. They were in Deauville in northwestern France in the decadent inter-war years.

A newly married couple appeared on the balcony on the left. She was married for the first time and him for the second. She asked questions about his first wife, Amanda, which he got somewhat rattled at. Then they went in.

Another newly married couple appeared on the balcony on the right. She was married for the second time and him for the first. He asked questions about her first husband, Elyot  which she got somewhat rattled at.

It not take much intelligence to work out that Amanda and Elyot had been married to each other. They soon discovered each other and the scene was set for the four protagonists (and three couples) to interplay with love, venom and humour.

But with no songs though, these were cut from the production. This was odd, not least because one of the songs, Some Day I'll Find You, is one of his most popular.

Without the missing songs the play had to rely on the dialogue, and a little bit of slapstick. The dialogue was typical sharp Coward whether people were being kind or unkind to each other and that was the source of a lot of humour. I did not know before that this is where the line "Very flat, Norfolk" came from. Helping that to come to life was the performance of Laura Rogers as the quixotic Amanda with a myriad of mischievous faces.

The story ebbed and flowed as did the passions and it was uncertain which of the couples would end up together, the reunited Elyot and Amanda rowed as violently as they wooed with memories of how they had loved and argued when married to each other and of why they were no longer married to each other. Their new partners added more changing emotions to the pot as they alternately forgave and condemned their spouses.

Apparently all this playing around between married couples was very racy for the 1930s censors where relationships outside of marriage were taboo. Modern times may be different and the situation no longer seems so scandalous but relationships are much as they ever were and couples arguing is always fun.

Something that stood the test of time less well was the approach to domestic violence. Now hitting women is seen as very wrong but then Elyot was allowed to say "Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs", and to do so. The line got a laugh but it was a nervous one. On the other hand, those period differences gave an interesting insight into our society of less than a century ago.

Private Lives was great entertainment thanks to great characters and great dialogue.

Fallen Angels at the Rose Theatre

My mixed views towards the Rose Theatre took a marked upswing after seeing Fallen Angels which was a pitch-perfect comedy.

It came from the pen of Noël Coward which is always a good start. Not only does he have a high reputation but performances that I have seen of Blithe Spirit and Hay Fever justify that reputation.

The director was Roy Marsden which may not have seemed an obvious choice for those who remember his as the cold Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgliesh but the only time I saw him on stage was in a hilarious Jacobean farce at Richmond Theatre, so he had a comedy heritage too. I recall his often repeated refrain, "Stab me vitals".

The Rose was laid out slightly differently from what I was used to with there being four rows (AA to DD) in the Pit area with a much reduced space at the front for those on cushions. I guess that the Rose thought (rightly) that this was not the sort of play to attract the youngsters who normally use this area so it made sense to put more seating in.

I was in the proper front row (A34) which mean that I had a comfortable view over the heads of those seated below in the Pit.

Fallen Angels was a comedy and morals. The two angels had been happily married for twelve years when they heard from a man who they had both had flings with before they met their husbands. He said that he was coming to London (from Paris) and was hoping to see them.

Most of the play then deals with the angels' anticipation and preparation for the reunion. Both are happily married but both are also tempted by the thought of the excitement of an illicit relationship. There was also some competition between the two and each suspected the other of trying to exclude them from the reunion.

And that's about as far as the plot went. There were the husbands off on their golfing weekend and the new maid who had been everywhere and done everything but the pay was all about the angels as the contemplated and planned their fall.

To work, the pay needed good angels and both Jenny Seagrove and Sara Crowe were fantastic. They made the situation, Coward's words and Marsden's direction all utterly believable and it was the fine attention to detail in the expressions and movements that wrung every ounce of humour out of the script.

Just three examples to show how this worked. There was a step across the room (you can see it in the picture) and when the angels got drunk they tripped on it every time, not in a slapstick way but just enough to show you how drunk they were. The maid only walked in straight lines, like an Etch-a-Sketch, and made violent turns whenever she had to change direction. In a magical moment, one of the angels tells the other not to be melodramatic and does so in the most melodramatic way.

Fallen Angels was very funny, delightful and endearing thanks to the great skill of all involved who made it all seem very casual and natural despite all the hard-work and careful planning involved.

Blithe Spirit at the Apollo Theatre

Blithe Spirit is an absolute gem that delights throughout and reassures you that ghosts can be sexy as well as scary.

The clue that you are in for a good night comes from the phrase "by Noel Coward" who certainly know how to write a good story as I discovered with Hay Fever at The Rose last year.

The story is quite simple. An author in search of a plot asks the local clairvoyant to dinner and to perform so that he can see the tricks of the trade. In the seance he makes contact with his former wife who is then conjured back in to a half life where only he can see and hear her, to other people she is invisible and mute.

A lot of the humour derives from this situation but Coward also has fun with the characters and their foibles along the way.

To make best use of good characters you need good actors, and this production does.

Alison Steadman plays the rumbustious and somewhat dotty clairvoyant with exuberance.

Robert Bathurst is utterly convincing as the feckless author and husband who is never in control of the situation.

I only know Hermione Norris from her ruthless role in Spooks so it is with a lot of credit that she morphs successfully in to a suave lady of leisure.

But missing from the poster is the real star of the show, Ruthie Henshall who plays the ghost.

Ruthie sizzles on stage as she weaves her mischief. Every movement, gesture and look is gleeful and sprightly, particularly when she plays with the people who cannot see her. And she looks fantastic too.

After the extreme disappointment with Betrayal just a few days before it was good to have my faith in the theatre reaffirmed with a play that delights in it own humour and carries its audience happily with it to the very end. A real treat.

Hay Fever at the Rose Theatre

The Rose Theatre in Kingston is my nearest theatre but has yet to win a place in my heart. With shows like Hay Fever that might just change.

The theatre's location helps sitting as it does on the edge of Charter Quay (it owes it's existence to a planning gain from that development) where there are plenty of bars and restaurants for the theatre-goer to refresh themselves.

I chose Wagamama and went for the yasai katsu curry, which I have been eating for ten years or so. Time for a menu refresh methinks.

The play's attraction for me was simply that it was written by Noël Coward. I'm not sure what I was expecting but Hay Fever was probably it with its subtle humour based on human eccentricities. Mad Dogs and Englishmen if you will.

The play is beautifully crafted over three acts, which I will call Arrival, Pairing and Departure.

In Arrival we are introduced to the four members of the Bliss family and, gradually, to the guests that each of them has invited to the house for the weekend. There is an implicit love interest with each one, despite the parents of the family still being married to each other and, apparently, happily so.

In Pairing the ensemble mixes and pairs off, but not as expected.

Finally, in Departure the four guests escape and leave the Bliss family to muse on the departees' eccentricities oblivious to the fact that theirs are greater and, for us, far more amusing.

The play relies greatly on a superb performance from Celia Imrie as the matriarchal Judith Bliss who thrives on her theatrical background; she has now retired from the stage but still carries some of the limelight around with her. This lets Imrie the actress wallow playfully in melodrama as she portrays Bliss the actress. It's wonderful to behold.

It's also necessary as I found the rest of the cast less convincing and compelling, apart from the daughter's amour who plays straight-laced impeccably. He just had to walk in his bemused manner to get you laughing.

Hay Fever did enough to convince me that the Rose Theatre is worth paying attention to but to get me back regularly they will have to keep doing unusual plays with good actors.