The Body Snatchers

Terror Buff (13Nov19): We saw this at another theatre - take four actors , one who can sing a bit and strum a guitar ( despite the capo that puts it out of tune ) and the Robert Lewis Stephenson adaptation of the Burke and Hare Bodysnatchers of 19th century Edinburgh and then turn it into a complete farce . The 70’s music and flashbacks add nothing to the story at all - just seems like an excuse to use an actor who likes singing - the “ clever use of the stage “ is non existent - the props poorly painted and unconvincing and two actors who keep reappearing as different characters which even the rather dim Dr Fettes should have been able to ID as the same people , and you’ve just got a mess of a play - a travesty of the original rather than a contemporary re-setting of it . The best bit was the flickering lamp and the ticking clock and the smoke , all of which appeared before the actors came on stage - seeing the actor in the gas mask made my husband and I turn to one another and say “ Are you my mummy ?” - shades of Dr Who. Not frightening, not entertaining, not terribly musical and not worth going to see . We felt sorry for the actors being given this rubbish to make something of - in a theatre where we are used to giving encores a-plenty , there were no encores ......