THIS double bill was a real treat – two beautifully written, highly intelligent and exceedingly quirky plays, exceptionally well performed by a first-class cast with superb sets, costumes and lighting effects.
What exactly Tom Stoppard was saying in The Real Inspector Hound is open to debate. The action takes place in a theatre, where a performance of a whodunit is watched by a couple of verbose critics who find themselves drawn into the on-stage proceedings in the most bizarre fashion. And as they become victims, their places as critics are taken by two of the ‘actors’, whose views of the performance are totally at odds with those of their predecessors. Such is the lot of the theatre reviewer!
Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy is an innovative piece set before and during a power cut in an artist’s London apartment. As the play opens the stage is in darkness but the audience is led to believe that the actors can see. When the lights fuse the stage becomes light, and the actors are seen groping blindly around the set – a feat which they managed to fine and extremely humorous effect.
It would be unfair to highlight individuals from such strong casts, but all fourteen - and their director, Simon Sketchley - should be awarded gold stars.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemout Daily Echo