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Ever wondered what it would look like if you mixed gritty detective tributes, Flushed Away, and a healthy amount of cheese puns?
Hard Cheese: Rat in the City: One Last Bite might be your answer.
Dream Simulator’s contribution to the Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights line up scratches an itch I didn’t know I had.
The atmosphere is set instantly by a street light style wash over the stage. There are wonderfully homemade set and props, which jump to life in the case of certain characters. The scrappy, cardboard aesthetic is mastered, without feeling cheap.
Instead, these set pieces create an appropriate sense of scale, leaving the characters to explore a world that feels much bigger than expected from the small space.
The titular Harland “Hard Cheese” is the show’s central vehicle, and rightfully so. With an affectionately crafted Brooklyn accent and slippery physical comedy, he cracks up audience and commands edge of your seat suspense on a dime. Extra impressive considering the mask worn throughout the show
You’d be surprised by the small cast, as each performer brings life to a series of characters, each different from the last.
Stand outs include: Rat Rat, Harland’s adorably clingy sidekick. Gleefully narcissistic nepo-baby Mr Mayor Jr III, who does a great job implying his storied history with Harland, despite his small stage time.
And at the heart of the mystery, Harland’s flirty ex-fling, real life actress Alison Brie is simultaneously a hilarious and sentimental pastiche of the Ms Scarlet type.
The script is a mix of on the nose and subtle humour and running jokes that only get funnier as they pop up again.
Though some content may push over the line for some, if you can handle it, it would be a shame not to see how this case closes.