On Saturday 23rd November 2013, my family and I went on our annual trip to London. In the past we have always done pretty average touristy sightseeing things: this time we wanted to do something different. Madame Toussaudes and the London Eye seemed to interest us less than a stale ham sandwich, so we headed to Leicester Square to see if we could find a show that tickled our fancy- unfortunately we were out of luck.
Whilst exploring China town, completely by chance, we stumbled upon the Gielgud Theatre and it's posters for the star studded production of 'Strangers on a Train'. Prior to going to London, I had seen Laurence Fox on the TV advertising this show, but due to his quite obnoxious and cocky nature I had completely ignored his plea for the public to watch and totally forgot about his appearance all together.
I hadn't been too fussed about going to see a show, but as it was nearing two o'clock and we still hadn't eaten or done much with the day, we decided to go and watch the matinee performance.
The play, which was written by Craig Warner (and based on Patricia Highsmith's novel) is the tale of complete strangers, Guy (Laurence Fox) and Charles (Jack Huston) and their families and friends (the glorious cast included the likes of Christian Mckay and Imogen Stubbs). The pair meet on a train totally by chance when travelling across America and little to their knowledge did they know they would be seeing a lot of each other in the future. With surprise visits to Guy and his new beautiful wife (Miranda Raison), from the charming alcoholic-turned-psychopath Charles, the simple idea of perfectly planned murder got a little messy.
Without giving away the ending, all I can say was that this performance was truly exhilarating, real gun power was used for explosions, real fire for the fantastic finale and real cigarettes were smoked throughout the play (I wasn't quite sure if this was allowed, but it really did help set the scene).
The shows tag line "Two strangers. One conversation. The perfect murder." really sums up the story quite sweetly: The show is booking until the 22nd February 2014 and I would really recommend a watch, it's a visually stunning story of psychological torment, blackmail and threats.
After the show I was lucky enough to meet Laurence Fox (who seemed like he just wanted to have a fag and get away) and Christian McKay (who was lovely enough to stand and chat for a while!)
[Image credit- Gareth Cooper]
