Edward Alderton Theatre Home | News | This Season | Next Season | Bookings | Auditions | Members | Archive | History | Location | Links | Contact Us   The Unvarnished Truth by Royce Ryton Directed by Claire Kingshott 18-25 March 1995 (7 performances) Tom Bryce and his wife Annabel have an argument over who loves the other more, during which Annabel is killed. Tom's policeman friend enters the picture and proceeds to complicate the situation. Other women - including Tom's mother-in-law, his excitable nurse and a crazed landlady - also turn up dead. The problem then becomes what to do with the bodies... Cast Tom Bryce Alan Goodwin Annabel Bryce Vera Robinson Bert Hopkins Colin Hill Mrs Cartwright Freda Phillips Bill Carlisle George Robinson Mrs Stewart-Dubonnet Eleanor McEnery Inspector David Hampton Isabel Brenda Ford Crew Stage Manager Jean Sharp Assistant Stage Manager Pauline Clifton Set Design Dennis Kingshott Lighting Design Dennis Kingshott Lighting Operation  Carol La Roche Sound Vivienne Goodwin Review The perfect comedy brew It is an unfortunate fact that a good farce and good exploitation of its comic potentials come together all too rarely. Last week, Claire Kingshott directed Royce Ryton's The Unvarnished Truth at the Edward Alderton Theatre in Bexleyheath. The author himself turned up to see the first performance and returned later in the week with a few friends to see the production again. The significance of this is open to a number of interpretations. Suffice it to say that I have rarely come across a plot that is so utterly absurd. In very brief terms, it concerns a playwright who kills his wife by accident. He is joined by his agent and a policeman who, between them, also manage to kill the wife's mother-in-law and the landlady. Later, a detective inspector arrives on the scene who inadvertently kills one of the wife's friends. If all this sounds far fetched, you might have been pleasantly surprised at what the director and actors achieved. In no small part, the production raced along at breakneck speed and the laughs came fast and furiously, simply because Claire Kingshott has assembled one of the best casts I have see at the EAT for a long time. This was was a classic example of farce as it should be played. Realistic and well-defined characters handling a very unreal situation, very rare excursions into over-exaggerated actions and breathtaking pace. These are essential ingredients that make the genre work and the performers mixed them together to make a perfect comedy brew. Roy Atterbury Kentish Times | 30 March 1995