Rasputin – always good for a laugh

Our friends Lynne and Norman Arnott had a couple of tickets to the play The Rasputin Affair  but couldn’t go. They kindly donated them to us. Last night we went by train to the Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli, a place we hadn’t visited for very many years. 

The Ensemble is a small, intimate theatre built in an old boatshed. We arrived in plenty of time, so had a drink in the bar which has great views across Sydney Harbour. As the rest of the audience arrived, we realised that this was a place popular with the elderly – we were among the youngest people there!

We had very good seats (Thanks!) The front row seats were right next to the actors – too close for comfort. We were three rows back,  just right.

The Rasputin Affair

The play, a comedy, concerned the killing of Rasputin by Russian nobles who persuade him to eat a poisoned cupcake. The play was good, but there was some wildly over-the-top acting and bizarre stage antics that didn’t fit very well. It became more farcical as it went along. There were lots of entrances and exits through a back wall covered in portraits of Russian royals that opened up to reveal mini-scenes. That was good.

Overall, an enjoyable night but I would not recommend this particular production. With better direction and different performances, I think it might have worked well.

Jan and I walked back to Milsons Point railway station and sat on a platform seat discussing our criticisms of the play and the direction. When we got onto our train, we were followed by two men who had been standing behind us on the platform. They were the two principal actors! We sat far away from them and tried not to giggle as we hoped they hadn’t been listening to us.