Superb singing underpinned this delightful light comedy
- 22 hours ago
- 2 min read
A Ring of Untruths, written and adapted by Tim Johnson, performed by Consensus Opera at The Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 25 - 27 March 2026.
Review by Charles Essex
Following on from Consensus Opera’s 2026 production A Bitter and Twisted Cocktail, Tim Johnson has written a wonderful thriller using his encyclopaedic knowledge of Gilbert and Sullivan music. The story starts with a lowly detective (Tracy Humphreys) in the 1970s investigating a discovery of bones, but she goes back in time to 1938 to Le Touquet-Paris-Plage on the French northern coast, working with Inspector Lawless (David Coulson), the detective who had been involved in a theft-murder mystery at the time.
This unusual theatrical device allowed a combination of exposition to give background to the characters, and Tracy to act as a quasi-narrator at times. Le Touquet attracted the rich and famous and the clever plot involved a ring from ancient Egypt found by an archaeologist (Graham Robson), a film director (Kevin Hand) who was also a jewel thief, a star of the silent screen (Fiona Robson), a female pilot (Patrica Head) and a wealthy couple who were bankrolling the film (Tim and Claire Johnson), and a French gendarme (Phil Hickson).
The play was extremely well cast, with all the actors entirely believable in their roles. There were countless gestures and facial expressions by the cast entirely appropriate to the script and done with slick timing. The range of voices was extraordinary and the singing was superb. David had a rich baritone timbre, while Graham gave a comical rendition of “I am the very model”. As well as pieces involving the whole cast, there were also very accomplished solos. Both Claire and Patricia gave marvellous soprano solos. Tim had a lovely tenor voice and Kevin sang a fabulous bass solo. David, Phil and Kevin sang a wonderful trio.
Phil had a brilliant French accent which he maintained throughout, as did Fiona with her American accent. Tracy was on stage throughout and gave a flawless performance. Cleverly, Tim arranged for all the cast to be involved straight after the interval to give a sung synopsis of the ‘story so far’, which was useful as the plot was rather convoluted. There was an unexpected comic touch when Kevin and Fiona recited Shakespeare near the finale.
Tim did a fantastic job of interweaving 15 songs as the basis for this clever and witty production. This full house went away with smiles on their faces after a delightful evening’s entertainment.
Discover more from Consensus Opera: https://consensusopera.uk/
See more from The Bear Pit: https://www.thebearpit.org.uk/
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