Originally described as "Thatcher's Britain with her knickers down", Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a quite extraordinarily harsh story.
Out of Joint's co-production is raunchy, funny, powerful and ultimately sad, concentrating as it does on the core relationships between the two young girls, Bob, his wife and Sue's parents. The morality of the main characters, and the harshness of their lives, were shocking enough at the time but barely credible now - so it is remarkable that we are drawn so fully into the story. Great pace and credible characters make for an engaging and believable piece though the pace did sometimes appear to overtake the acting with so much to fit in to such a short show.
An impressive set, with hints of the original film, works well with four car seats providing most of the required scene changes which are introduced and choreographed cleverly with loud 80's music and a deal of humour.
Short it may be but this punchy production provides a great night of theatre