Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Agatha Christie’s the Rats
Hart Players
Genre: Drama
Venue: The Space on the Mile
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Christie knew how to imagine theatre, with or without a mouse trap, and here is no different. Set in the 1960s it has a dated feel but with an enthusiastic cast, manages to mark itself out as a decent attempt to put a worthy drama onstage.
Review
There is a studious earnestness about the Hart Players coming all the way up to Edinburgh to perform which is both admirable and filled with jeopardy. Taking your hobby to the biggest stage for that craft in the world sounds both daunting and utterly exciting. You can see both etched in the faces of our performers. They are delighted to be with us, and a little surprised to be so popular.
And perhaps their genius is in the choice of play. A Christie that is not well known but has opportunity to entertain more than challenge their creative abilities. I absolutely admire their appearance here and think that this is a very decent effort at Christie. Christie is made for local Am Dram societies for the very reason that at its heart there is a decent story and there is also an opportunity to expose human frailty without asking too much of the cast and too much of the audience. Much of her plot becomes obvious if she does not have a genius working everything out by referring to a quant English village, a dynamic brother and sister duo or little grey cells. And here is no different.
We have a suspiciously acting Sandra, caught by a highly suspicious Jennifer in a flat which is not her own, wondering why Sandra has turned up there when the owners are away. Jennifer is there to feed the budgerigar, but thinks Sandra has other voracious appetites on her mind – denied strenuously by Sandra. Then comes Davie who we quickly discover, after Jennifer leaves, is precisely the man Sandra has been waiting for. Both characters have been brought to this place by false messaging – one by hand and the other by telephone. Alex then makes her entrance to maintain the pretence of there being a party to which all of them have been invited. She then manages to get both to handle a dagger which has been used for a dastardly deed. That dagger is then dropped out the flat, she leaves, locks them in and when that dastardly deed is discovered, Alex has caught them both in their infidelity. But more important than that Alex manages to elicit a confession from Sandra about the death of Sandra’s very own first husband, in the sight of the death of her second whilst a third potential husband begins to consider his options.
It’s a sixties play, and it feels like a sixties play. The cast play it as an authentic time piece and, at times, manage to convince. Sometimes, however, there are missed cues, over acted reactions and timing is a little off. You could argue it has been slightly under rehearsed, but some parts feel a little over rehearsed. The front door being mimed and then locked to the outside world when there are two doors in the venue appears a little stuck in its own direction, however the clear enjoyment exuded throughout makes this less of an issue.
This is a company who have invested in an experience which should be totally accepted and celebrated for what it is. They have taken a risk, and they have made their case. In so many ways the lifeblood of the theatre depends upon amateur companies like The Hart Players, and they deserve their space on the stage. By the end I was almost tempted to go back to the local am dram myself!
