The Rat Trap by Noel Coward – reimagined by Bill Rosenfield, Park 200, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 | until 14 March 2026 ⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Mitzi de Margar

The Rat Trap

by Noel Coward – reimagined by Bill Rosenfield

Park 200, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 | until 14 March 2026

⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Interesting first play but not worth resuscitating.”

Written when he was 18 years old and was in an army hospital recovering from a nervous breakdown The Rat Trap was Noel Coward's first play. It was not produced until 1926, ran for 12 performances and Coward never saw it performed. By that time, he had launched his career as a playwright to watch with The Vortex, and he had no interest in returning to the play – he had other and better ones to write. Since then, it has been staged at The Finborough which specialises in forgotten plays and now there is this version “reimagined” - whatever that means – by Bill Rosenfield which fails to make the case for resuscitating it. There is interest in how the themes Coward was later to examine are there but in terms of a play to excite interest on stage in spite of some reasonable performances from the cast it is pretty hard going – one really does not care about the marriage  between ambitious playwright Keld Maxwell (Ewan Miller) and novelist Shiela Brandreth (Lily Nichol) which rapidly runs into trouble as he thrives while she gets writer's block. She has a girl friend who sees trouble in it from the first, they encounter some socialites who seem into more than just friendship, there is an actress with whom he dallies and Coward's first maid Burrage – a truly awful role nicely done by Angela Sims. There is invariably in a Coward play a comic maid who got scene stealing chances. Here the hapless Burrage gets to serve tea and moan a bit and it  is not until the end that she finally gets her big moment, one almost worth the wait. But the dialogue does not sparkle – sounding brisk and witty is not something that comes naturally to Ewan Miller – and if the role was intended for anyone it was intended by the author for himself, and this dreary Lowland Scot is not Noel. As for Lily she looks throughout as if she would have been happier staying with her old flat mate rather than this self-obsessed male. The set by Libby Watson – lots of white net curtains – conjures up nowhere, and director Kirsty Patrick Ward, while ensuring that endless cups of tea get poured and the comic turns – those socialites in particular – ham things up horribly - never manages to make clear any reason why the mismatched pair should have wed in the first place. The Rat Trap is of interest to read in that it does foretell what was to follow once Coward had learned to write plays – he was already an experienced actor - but it is not all that interesting to watch being performed. Juvenilia something should be allowed to remain exactly that. It shows Coward had the makings of what he wanted to be – a writer of plays that defied the standards of his time – there may be no rock and roll but there is plenty of sex and lots of drugs to come. But that does not make for an enthralling evening.

Cast

Gina Bramhill – Olive Lloyd-Kennedy

Lily Nichol – Shiela Brandreth

Ewan Miller – Keld Maxwell

Ailsa Jay – Naomi Frith-Bassington

Daniel Abbot – Edmund Crowe

Angela Sims – Burrage

Zoe Goriely – Ruby Raymond

Creatives

Director – Kirsty Patrick-Ward

Set & Costume Designer – Libby Watson

Lighting Designer – Jamie Platt

Sound Designer & Composer – Ed Lewis

Movement Director – Ingrid Mackinnon.

Fight Director -Claire Llewellyn for Re-Annie.

Theatre, play            2 February 2026.

Photo Credit – Mitzi de Margar