Welsh-born playwright Owen Thomas’ newest play, Richard Parker, explores coincidence – is our life really a series of coincidences, or are they just products of us over-analysing situations? Filled with dark humour, fluid dialogues and examples of hundreds of little-known historical and recent coincidences, this show is bound to thoroughly amuse, startle and entertain you. The two actors, Gareth John Bale and Alistair Sill, give an impressive and convincing performance. They also manage to keep the audience attention despite the scare set of just two benches, and props consisting of a book, bag and a tin of sardines.Richard Parker is a story about two men who share a common name, whose chance meeting on a ferry - while both of them are on their way to attend funerals, dressed in exactly the same clothes - changes their lives for ever. Now if that’s not coincidence, I don’t know what is. But is it really?The play first came to life as a 20-minute one-act play before reaching its present form. The time and thought that has gone into producing this show is, thankfully, obvious. There is no wonder why the show was as well-received as it was during its tours in 2009 and 2010. The look of amusement on the faces of the audience at the end of show tells me that this show is being liked no less in Edinburgh too.
