Last night the hubby and I headed over to The Little Theatre in Leicester for my very first visit there. Firstly – what a lovely theatre with a friendly team and warm atmosphere. The reception staff, especially, were very friendly as I picked up our gifted tickets and we headed to our seats.

This is another production that I didn’t know anything about but had been assured by our daughter that it was a good story and she was right. The story follows the lives of the Price Family with their outward appearance showing a loving working class family of six led by the matriarch Fran, her husband, Bob  and their four adult children – Pip, Mark, Ben and Rosie (played by Kate Carey, Joe Allen, Richie Phillips and Sophie Johnston respectively).

From the very beginning we are taken on a journey with Rosie as she travels from Australia to Europe where she has her heart broken and her possessions stolen which leads to her cutting short her gap year experience. A tough monologue to listen to but Sophie performs it strongly and with passion. Our hearts break with hers as she realises that she has been sucker-punched by a good looking Spaniard she met in a nightclub.

Upon her return home we realise how astute and cutting her mother can be. Fran immediately knows that something is wrong, calling the family all together to support the youngest member of the family. We meet the dynamic of the job-focused Pip, the gentle Mark, the brash Ben and Bob – the dad who just wants to  enjoy his redundancy-forced retirement in his garden with his roses.

Nicky Mawer, as strong mother Fran,  moves with ease from the humour of the script to the cutting lines – laughing at one moment at her response and cringing as she delivers a vicious blow, often being dismissive of her children’s struggles, fears and needs without realising she is slowly alienating them. The strength in her performance matches Sophie Johnston’s which is needed as they are the almost constants throughout the show with Fran often centre stage whilst Rosie watches the fracturing of the family dynamic from the sidelines. The ability of both these ladies to change their reaction to what is happening around them is as fluid as the ever changing seasons and they compliment each other beautifully.

You can see that Fran is the ‘bad cop’ of the parents whilst Bob (Paul Beasley) tries his hardest to maintain peace in sometimes volatile situations. At times he comes across as almost docile but when Bob’s working class background is brought into the spotlight when Ben’s envy of “the private school lot” causing him to make poor decisions the response from Paul Beasley is superb.

Nadine Beasley’s direction of the production is good with a great use of the set designed by Steph Nicholls. A set that is the kitchen and backyard of the Price family home where the changing of the seasons is very cleverly done by the changing of the rose beds from being in full bloom to the budless twigs of winter. The fact that these flower beds are changed, in full view of the audience, by the family members adds to the piece by reminding us, as an audience, that time stands still for no-one.

There are other strong performances from the rest of the cast as they cover some very sensitive topics such as adultery, gender transitions and crime each being reacted to by the unforgiving (in some cases) Fran. In fact it is only the lawbreaking of Ben that she seems to forgive….maybe because she herself has skimmed money from the family to put herself together a nest egg “just in case” she ever wanted to leave Bob. How he ever forgave her for that I am not sure.

All in all it is a great performance of a difficult and sometimes wordy play. There were the odd word stumbles (but these didn’t detract from the excellent performance) and the creaking of a floorboard was distracting a couple of times but, all in all, I recommend going along to enjoy the show – just be prepared for some bad language (despite Bob’s best efforts to stop it).

As a final note – I love that the backstage crew are brought on to take their bow at the end. They work so hard and are overlooked sometimes so this made me happy.

Things I Know To Be True runs until Saturday 15th November at the Little Theatre and tickets can be bought here.

Images by Jonathan Pryke