THE TRUTH Unseen Theatre Company Bakehouse Theatre Until 11 Nov 2017 Review by Brian Godfrey The late Sir Terry Pratchett’s world-renowned ‘Discworld’ series of novels have also morphed into other entertainment media as well; graphic novels, films, television and stage plays. Most of the latter, and probably the more successful, have been adapted by Stephen Briggs. One of the reasons that Briggs’ stage versions work so well is that he keeps the main plot succinct, whilst still managing to keep that wonderful Pratchett humour flowing. You do not really need a knowledge of the Disc to understand the story. “The Truth” is very much in this category. “The Truth” is basically a comical look at newspapers and the ethics of journalism (apparently there are some!) Unseen Theatre Company dedicate themselves to honoring Pratchett and his Discworld. Sometimes they pay homage better than at other times. This time the company excel in presenting a very funny, fairly fast paced, fun couple of hours of entertainment. Pamela Munt knows and understands Pratchett’s philosophy very well and shows it with her direction, the selection of musical ‘themes’ and in the playing of Zombie lawyer, Mr Slant. She is delightfully evil and gorgeously gravelly in voice. Danny Sag makes an excellent Otto Chriek, a Vampire photographer who has issues with flash photography: his performance doesn’t suck at all (Sorry, had to go there!). Hugh O’Connor makes the perfect leading man as William de Worde, especially with his deep, resonant voice. Alycia Rabig does all of her three characters well, giving them all different styles and voices. Philip Lineton was born to play Lord Vetinari, and does so with a wonderous ‘ooze’; he just needs to watch his volume every now and then – it was slightly hard to hear from time to time, even from the first row. While the rest of the cast worked well, special mention must be made of Aimee Ford as Gaspode the talking dog, and ‘Men In Black/Pulp Fiction’ styled Nick Andrews (Mr Pin) and Paul Messenger (Mr Tulip). All three of these performers were clear audience favourites and rightly so. Whether you are a Pratchett fan or not, this production is just a great piece of escapist fun done very well by Unseen Theatre – just don’t let it be unseen by you.