Dear Fellow Rats,
This week’s dive was something different. A small, bare-bones space—part of a new experiment from Sonia Friedman and Ian Rickson—where spectacle was stripped away and story took centre stage. And you know what? The theatre rat approves.
Tickets were cheap. The experience? A masterclass in how much can be done with just text, tension, and two actors who know exactly what they’re doing. We don’t see enough of it.
Read on for the full nibble...
If you’re enjoying these please share with your fellow rats… 🐀
THE RAT’S RECOMMENDATION:
“Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes”
Cheese Score: 🧀🧀🧀🧀(4/5)
Description:
A celebrated novelist begins an affair with his student, forcing both to navigate the blurry line between desire, power, and self-deception.
Why you should care?
Simple, bare staging focused on text – The staging is bare: no sets, no spectacle. You’re in the classroom, in the living room, in the pause before something irreversible. The lighting and costume is minimal and this is honestly where the most powerful moments of theatre happen - not in the spectacle but in the words.
Hugh Jackman – This isn’t Wolverine. It feels intimate, dark, smaller, more dangerous. He draws you in with warmth—and keeps you there when his personality starts to tear at the edges of the image.
You’re Not Watching – You’re In It – Don’t show up late as he may call you out and continue doing so during the show. Jackman breaks the fourth wall without shattering it. The show plays like a confession and you’re sitting in the pew.
Complicated Power – This is a show about who gets to speak—and how they shape the story. You’re drawn in before you realise just how skewed the perspective is (think Disclaimer on Apple TV, and you’re close). The intimacy is disarming, but the script lands like a gut punch—reminding you how easily charm can cloud judgement and how slippery “truth” becomes in the right voice.
Who to Bring - Your friend who posts feminist thinkpieces but still fantasizes about their professor. The ex who calls every breakup a “power imbalance.” Your mom, who thinks Hugh Jackman can do no wrong (watch her squirm). And that one guy in your life who insists Lolita is misunderstood.
Have you seen it? What's your rating?
Overall Cheese rating: 4/5
RAT READERS 🐀🐀🐀
Here we share the responses from our fellow Rat Mischief - this was from last week’s show - Vanya! Submit your review and get featured in next week’s edition.
Go see Andrew Scott in Vanya -- a tour de force and a major physical and mental feat. Be amazed as you watch the many depressed characters that Scott can take on all at once. You'll leave the theater impressed and sad at the same time.
Until next week, keep it dramatic, keep it ratty, and always aim for center stage! 🐀✨.
P.S. Thanks for being part of this weird rat family. Please reply to this email and let us rats know how we are doing?
With lots of Ratitude,
The Stage Rat