Review from Liverpool

Performance: Wednesday 6th February 2002
Venue: Narrowboat on the Shropshire Union Canal
Reviewed by: Esther Coleman - Hawkins

Thick as Thieves is the latest play produced by Hard Graft Theatre Company. Written by Mark Whiteley and performed by him and Daniel Hoffman-Gill they have taken it around the country in a tour of other peoples' front rooms and my boat.

The story tells the tale of two burglars who arrive in your pitch-black front room - equipped to rob you but they find a dead budgerigar.
(Just work with this)

Being baddies with a streak of goodness in them they hunt around for something to bury the dead budgie in but find something much, much more scary in the back room.

The experience of having actors perform in and around you and your house is incredible. The sense of intimacy - especially in a boat where the acting room was about 1 metre square plus corridors - took being an audience to a whole new level.

Forget the front row of the stalls - this was like sitting on the stage.
The actors, Mark and Daniel performed brilliantly. What made it stranger for everyone was that 15 minutes prior to the performance they were sat around their table eating dinner with us - then disappeared off to change and returned as burglars.

Their portrayal of the two characters was complete - Daniel in particular was the epitome of a burglar (in my minds eye at least) complete with stoop, although the fact he was taller (6ft 7 inches) than the ceiling (6ft, nearly) probably had a lot to do with this!

The sound - courtesy of our old stereo, Nicky Giammetta the soundman and our generator gave the play an added dimension - especially when the phone rings - a sound unfamiliar to our ears, (BT haven't managed to work out how to cable lines to houses on the water).

The script was very funny, but also intelligent. It would have worked well in a theatre but to have it performed in as intimate a space as your own house made it the most exciting piece of theatre I have possibly ever seen.
And if you ever see a chalk drawing of a man on the pavement and the words 'weirddoug.com' inside him hunt out the culprits and drag them into your living room and make them act. It beats even Eastenders.