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At Black Rat |
| Guide to Past Productions , Touring the Theatres of Wales , November 9, 2023 |
Black Rat's 2024 production is covered in the “Quarterly Critical Round-up” 12th December 2024.Productions of Black Rat can be seen below: “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” 08 November 2023 “Daniel Llewelyn-Williams' has a lot of script with hardly a scene in which he is absent. He is fierce in defence of his art. “The destruction of a clue”, he tells Watson, “ is more criminal than the crime itself.” He plays his violin to stimulate thought. His eyes execute a 360-degree swivel. One guise involves a little cross-dressing as a Russian medium. Two spirits are summoned up from the other side. They engage in dialogue, Llewelyn-Williams drawing on deep guttural tones, two of them in counterpoint.” “The Invisible Man” 03 November 2022 “Costumes, accents and characters change at speed. A peak is a scene where Zoe Davies plays a police chief with Churchillian overtones. She herself has a hat as do four vintage standard lamps with a hat apiece. She swaps the hats at speed, each denoting a separate character and a separate accent. The Irish character has a repeated solution as to how to catch an invisible man. The trick is to throw a pot of paint at him. The pace and verbal flourish earn Zoe Davies a round of applause in her own right.” "Art": 31 October 2019 “It has resonance” asserts Gareth John Bale's debonair, polo-necked, patrician Serge of his 100,000-Euro purchase. Richard Tunley's Marc scrutinises the all-white canvas and his cheeks bulge, his eyebrows arch. Serge denies it is even white. Keiron Self's vulnerable Yvan, with his self-confessed drift of a life behind him, looks hard and sees yellow and grey, tinges of ochre.” "Loot": 26 October 2018 "One Man Two Guv'nors": 16 October 2017 “That Phylip Harries can play a guitar is no surprise. But then in the second act he whips out a harmonica and makes very presentable bitter-sweet music from it. The music is integral to the show. Richard Tunley has expanded Black Rat to a nice company of nine but a small Valleys company is not a national theatre. When it comes to the band the actors have got to do it and they do not get a day extra outside the three weeks for rehearsal. Chris Tummings is on washboard and James Lawrence extracts beautiful tones from his lead guitar. Lee Gilbert is lead vocalist; the quality of the harmonies is so good to suggest they are old mates who have been gigging together for years.” "The 39 Steps": 23 October 2015 “Gareth John Bale’s Hannay wears a three-piece suit of Harris tweed. Suit and demeanour remain unruffled throughout his moorland flight and a five hundred mile motorcycle journey back south. “Golly” he exclaims as Annabella pitches over him in her last gasp of life. “Oh, crikey” is his response to an enforced clamber on the dizzying girders of the Forth railway bridge. “Toodle pip” he shouts to his pursuers as he escapes through yet another window.” "Bedroom Farce": 24 October 2014 “There is much in the script of its time. The characters talk about sex but hover around it with a certain decorum. Kate makes confession that on occasion her mind has wandered in media res to decisions on floor covering. The worst language is “blinking “crikey” and “blinking O’Reilly”. The production has much fun with the period detail. Lyn Seymour’s party shoes are tottering platforms. Gareth Bale has bellbottom jeans and sideburns of Wolverine dimensions. Richard Tunley tries to relax under a zig zag patterned duvet. The jaunty score has some fun with the book of its time that he is reading.” "Neville's Island": 26 October 2012 (2) “Black Rat Productions, who last year had the audience rocking in their seats with Up And Under, have done it again with Neville’s Island. Wickedly funny with some naughty one-liners, a bare bottom, and a huge dollop of pathos, The play infuses comedy with tragedy and takes a jab at management, masculinity, middle-age and religion.” "Up and Under": 07 October 2011 “From the time Black Rat Productions opened the play with a powerful Six Nations anthem mix it was passion, passion and passion all the way. The comedy has been adapted for stage by prolific playwright John Godber who re-wrote the award winning film by setting it in the heart of the South Wales valleys within the competitive world of amateur rugby. It was a laugh a minute as the home team of just six belted out funny one liners akin to male changing room banter and local pub frivolity.” “Wind in the Willows”: 04 December 2010 “The Wind in the Willows follows hot on the heels of the excellent Bouncers and is yet another triumph for the Cardiff-based company. A cast of four adeptly filled most of the roles; charmingly supported by a chorus of children. They take us to the Battle of Toad Hall with a liberal sprinkling of updated references, new scenes and an exceptional synchronised duck, Ratty and boat number.” "Bouncers": 07 November 2009: 12 November 2010 I”n all my years of visiting the Grand’s Depot Studio, I have never seen a standing ovation for any performance, let alone taken part in one – but the opening night of this wildly entertaining piece of theatre from Black RAT Productions changed all that, with the capacity crowd rising as one to express their overwhelming appreciation.” “Romeo and Juliet”: 29 April 2010: 28 April 2010 “The fresh feeling to this production doesn’t stem from the use of mobile phones, helicopter search parties or humanoid robots from the future; but rather an absolute understanding of the text – it’s relevance and the impact that it should have. That’s the modernity. The scene in which Romeo lays with Juliet ahead of his banishment, initially in silence aside from two cast members singing a haunting melody, is exquisitely played and universal in theme. Richard Tunley’s absolute wrath shown to Juliet when disobeyed is uncomfortable and real to watch.” "A Midsummer Night's Dream": 08 July 2009 “This is very much a contemporary interpretation of the tale, and has a strong visual aspect - the mortals, for the most part, are clad in check shirts/blouses/jackets while the fairies share a common floral motif - and there are sequences in which the actors double as puppeteers. The physicality, too, is an important feature of this one, with the performers leaping and tumbling like contemporary dancers. In such an intimate space, the effect is positively electric.” "Oedipus": 17 February 2009 “This low-key and smartly staged piece of theatre from Black Rat Productions adds much to the traditions and vocabulary of Greek theatre in that adaptor/director Richard Tunley has attempted to focus upon the fall from grace of Sophocles' central character, whose life - as stated in the programme notes - "crumbles in the space of a day". "Miss Julie": 18 December 2008 “In 2008 Richard Tunley’s Black Rat Productions came out with its first play, Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. It played to complete sell out audiences at the Wales Millennium Centre. Now this latest production has achieved the same result packing them in at the intimate theatre space in the bar/café of The Gate Art Centre. Early next year the company will return with a new production of Oedipus which will no doubt achieve much the same result. This demonstrates that there is a strong appetite for well known plays from the classic and British and international repertoire here in Cardiff and probably the rest of Wales.” |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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