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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Dale Roberts as |Dr Farqhar, left, and Joshua Gallagher as Mark Styler Mindgame Grange Players Grange Playhouse **** Reality is what we see, while illusion . . . that's what we think we see and Anthony Horowitz's psychological thriller blurs the distinction between the two with a shapeshifting plot full of contradiction and misdirection that you can never quite put your finger on. The simple story slowly, quietly, almost unnoticed, reveals a sinister underbelly with glimpses into the darkest corners of the human mind, places where our worst fears and nightmares are hidden away. But we start firmly with reality. Mark Styler is a writer of somewhat gory, true crime, page turners with a penchant for serial killers. He is at the end of his patience after waiting two hours to talk to Dr Alex Farqhar (the q is silent making the h redundant, if you were wondering). Dr Farqhar is the director of Fairfields, a secure hospital for the criminally insane, and Styler has written to him to arrange a meeting about interviewing the notorious serial killer, Easterman, who is a patient, inmate . . . whatever . . . at Fairfields, and is the proposed subject of the next true crime book. Farqhar arrives full of apology explaining he had to deal with an emergency in B wing, which of course sets hares running about the dangers lurking down every corridor in an institution housing, not to put too fine a point on it, homicidal maniacs, a sort of Hannibal Lecter themed hotel. He is dapper, friendly and, raising the first doubt about reality, has no idea who Styler is or why he is there and can't remember ever having written back agreeing to see him. Joshua Gallagher's Styler is the one facing the longest psychological journey. We open with him annoyed, locked in an office presumably for his own safety, tired of the long wait, then frustrated that Farqhar not only has no idea why he is there, but is now wary of him seeing Easterman. That is as good as it gets for him as we see the confidence of the successful author slowly evaporating as vulnerability and echoes of his past close in. As his world slowly shrinks that of Dale Robert's Farqhar's grows. His genial, at times even witty, good host façade fades as he conducts a masterclass in the art of menace, even throwing in snippets of humour which seem both incongruous and disturbing.
Sue Davies as Nurse Paisley We are left in that unsettling dead zone between reality and illusion. The landscape meticulously laid out for us at the start is shifting beneath our feet leaving us uncertain about anything with even the line between sanity and madness becoming uncertain. A confusion hardly helped by the appearance of Nurse Paisley who appears to be the poster girl for the Royal College of Belligerence. She is called in to find a cup of tea and sandwich for Styler and Sue Davies' nurse is far better at finding reasons why she can't do something than doing it, making her point with a bristling hostile attitude. Her appearance adds more questions than answers; why, for example, does the good nurse know more of the contents of Farqhar's desk than he does himself and why does a nurse display such rebellious insolence and lack of respect for her boss? Truth is becoming a variable with the single office set, designed by director Rod Bissett adding to the audience feeling that like Styler, we are trapped. A faulty PA system which breaks in with snatches of, incongruously, Acker Bilk and Strangers on the Shore, at random intervals helps to unsettle everyone, except Farqhar of course, while an oversensitive and deafening alarm system, requires the director to phone control with a password to switch it off every so often. Amid the distractions, Farqhar's beautifully controlled menace grows as Styler's cloak of confidence as the famous true crime author setting up his next best seller, complete with film rights, starts to unravel. The cast carry the story well, with Robert's Farqhar, slowly, almost sentence by sentence, drifing away from his professional calling, adding sudden flashes of anger and threats, while Davies' nurse, despite her unfriendly attitude, is trying to help Styler until . . . until she couldn't, well, not any more, while Gallagher's Styler is slowly becoming lost as the narrative unfolds around him And there it might have ended but for the emotion filled twist to change illusion back to reality and even make us question what we had really sat through. The play. directed by Bissett, builds the tension well and the cast are convincing as they manipulate audience perception of what is real and they even leads us to question the nature of madness. Who among us is really sane? It is not the most comfortable watch but fine acting makes it a treat for lovers of psychological thrillers, or indeed thrillers in general. Roger Clarke 13-11-25 |
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