Review of Naked Truth at Gordon Craig Theatre Stevenage

I am a regular visitor to the theatre but I have never seen any of the author’s plays before so I did not know what to expect. The show opened with a politician pleading with the producer of a reality TV show to tone it down as it was getting out of hand, this scene explained what ‘Naked Truth’ was about.

It then moved at a fast pace whilst mocking the modern-day celebrity culture.

The part where Jimmy played by Johnny Tait the author was chatting to sweet, naïve Alice had me roaring with laughter, then when the heavyweight comedian came flying out of the shower, with nothing but a towel to cover his modesty, the theatre was in uproars.

Then came along bold, brassy Donna dressed in only a bright pink towel, she showed no inhibitions, Donna behaved exactly as she pleased, she unashamedly discussed subjects that a lady would not normally talk about in mixed company and did not care what she said. The profanities were far from lady-like.

It was the contrast of the five main characters that made ‘Naked Truth’ for me. I particularly liked the clash of personalities of Jimmy the has been comedian and Trevor the traffic warden, the scene where Jimmy provokes Trevor into admitting to what he did with a live sheep was so well staged it had the entire auditorium in stitches. Whilst prim and proper Elizabeth was extremely pretentious as she looked down her nose at her fellow housemates.

The humour ended when each one of the housemates were forced to tell the story of their past, by the dark assassin, it was then that the genre changed, I thought I was watching a comedy, then suddenly it turned into a deep dark drama. Some of the dialogue was quite disturbing. I shuddered when Alice undressed to try to avoid telling her innermost secret.

When forced to do so it seemed that she like all her fellow housemates was covering up a deep dark secret and that not one of them was innocent at all.

Although we did not see the violence, the sound effects made it very real. When the traffic warden attacked Alice I was really concerned about where it was going.

The twist at the end of the show had a message of how far a government would go to distract the general population of its wrong doings.

I think it was very brave to stage a production of this kind. Naked Truth is definitely not a cliché, most plays follow a line that has been tried and tested. At first to be a tongue in cheek comedy, then it took on subjects that have never been tackled before, which if not handled correctly could have ruined the show and may have caused offence to the pc brigade, particularly traffic wardens, that said I would recommend Naked Truth to anyone over the age of eighteen.

Review by Jane Brown

Naked Truth a controversial, cynical new play written by comedian and author of ‘Conscience’ and ‘Factor 2025’ Johnny Tait opened to critical acclaim in the Leicester Square Theatre, now moves to The Gordon Craig Theatre Stevenage Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017.

This laugh-out-loud comedy, within a deep dark drama, is certain to be a smash hit. We leap forward and reality TV has taken on a new twist, the government are using it to cover up what is really going on in the world, the viewing figures are higher than anything any TV show has ever had in the history of broadcasting but have the producers gone too far?