The Three Musketeers

Black RAT Productions and Blackwood Miners Institute

Blackwood Miners Institute

Written and directed by Richard Tunley, The Three Musketeers is full of the sort of laughs and slapstick humour we have come to expect from Black RAT Productions.  There are some fun songs and music from

Dai Smith and Allyson Summerhayes, but the main enjoyment is from the fast-flowing action from the cast of Zoe Davies as Athos, and Owen Pugh as Aramis (the one who smells nice), Olivier Sublet as Porthos and Seren Vickers as D’Artagnan.

The plot, a take on Alexandre Dumas’ 17th Century Adventure, is about saving the queen of France from embarrassment in a complicated story that involves going back and forward across the channel, stolen jewels, espionage, ambition to be a musketeer and zany love interests. There is the now usual Black Rat actors swapping around multi characters, with the help of costumes by Abigail Gould Jenkins. This time we also a member of the audience being invited to play a fifth character, providing a lot of the laughs of the show.

The set is relatively simple with four doors that the characters can use for the farcical swapping roles as they race in and out of these openings. We also have the trope of doing the same things over and over again, so just making it faster and pared down for laughs. This panto style of humour is jolly, but can become a little too predictable.

There are clever ways of having the different roles played by the small group of players, including having tabards that are simply turned round to be either Musketeer or the baddies in the service of the Cardinal de Richelieu. One of the funniest routines was surprisingly simple, the Cardinal, played by a woman, also having to voice a female character, (hiding her face in her hat etc., who was played by a man. Not so successful was a dated Donald Trump skit.

To tell too many other parts of the show would ruin the enjoyment, as would going through the plot narrative.

It is funny, you will laugh out loud, and the quality of the performances is extremely strong.

Black RAT are touring Wales November 2 visiting 15 venues across the country including Memo Arts Centre, Barry – October 8; Borough Theatre, Abergavenny – October 14; The Riverfront, Newport - October 15; and The Met Abertillery – October 22.

Age suitability of 11+