I Was a Rat

Synopsis

I Was A Rat! introduces us to Roger, a scruffy page boy who turns up one evening on the doorstep of old married couple Bob and Joan. "I was a rat!" he insists! But what is he now? A terrifying monster rampaging in the sewers? A money-spinning fairground freak? A champion wriggler and a downy card? Or just an ordinary boy, though a little ratty in his habits?

Our Review:

Paul Couch - 12 March 2013

It’s an interesting notion – taking a well-known and much beloved tale, isolating a minor character and then exploring their backstory. Such is the case with Birmingham Rep’s I Was A Rat!, which takes as its protagonist one of the rodents that was wonderfully transformed into a footman to whisk Cinderella off to her magical Ball.

But what happens when the fairy dust settles? What about those left behind? In the case of the rat-boy who wandered off and missed being changed back to his original form, he stumbles across an elderly couple (Tyrone Huggins and Lorna Gayle) who adopt him and give him the unlikely – for an erstwhile rat anyway – moniker of Roger.

But life in the world of Man isn’t easy for some...