Star
rating - 3/10
I love Christmas. I love children. I love theatre.
It pains me to be have to be so churlish about something that involves all
three but sadly the festive production by my beloved Royal Exchange is a real
turkey. And that's from a committed vegetarian...so basically not good then.
Rats
Tales by Carol Ann Duffy is made up of a hotch potch of
different stories, which started out showing much promise with the Pied Piper
of Hamelin - a superbly dark tale with a moral lesson I approve of - deliver on
what you promise or else. But the first half of the performance dipped after
that strong opening with a collection of stories about trolls, dolls houses,
and witches which sorely lacked coherence and failed to grip.
The second half of the play turned into an
altogether darker proposition which I felt was frankly unsuitable for children.
It included a girl who was being forced to marry her father, and a boy whose
stepfather cruelly ignored him to the extent that he became invisible. Call me
old fashioned but I just don't think this is the stuff of a family festive
offering. And there was a bit of needless swearing thrown in to boot.
It tried to straddle a fine line between pantomime
and serious theatre ended up achieving neither. And its darkness was not at all
redeemed by its final contrived happy ending. Which is a shame for the actors
who were all perfectly fine, and the lovely accompanying musicians.
The abundance of children at the start and end
felt a bit like a school play - and I don't mean that in a good way. And there
were nowhere near as many rats as I expected. At one point the overkill on dry
ice left the audience spluttering and unable to see anything on stage either.
I predict that this production will have limited appeal - as
indicated by the many empty seats tonight, and is sadly a miss for the Royal
Exchange. Bah humbug...
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