I must remember throughout this that 'The Works of Fate' is a free show, and as a result will give you value for money if it doesnt make you walk out. A newly re-married man Courval and his wife, Florville, go to meet the estranged son from the previous marriage. They realise clumsily that they are on a stage in front of an audience and end up sitting down but interacting with the play onstage like a bastardised The Real Inspector Hound'. The play within a play transpires to tell the story of Florville and in doing so reveals her troubled past. The illusion of innocence and purity which she had the audience and Courval believe is smashed open and leaves her to be judged onstage. The players use rhyme and mime to provoke her confession and downfall for her previous crime. She had judged Courvals wife to death, despite committing the same crimes she did, namely infidelity, murder and incest. The show is based on a great idea, an adaptation of one of Marquais de Sades sinister stories. The original story carries and saves the production from complete catastrophe, providing the twists and ultimately very good ending that had a lot of power. The script early on failed to tell us who the characters were, and the audience had a lot of names thrown at them that meant nothing until they were clarified further down the line. This was not helped by the low quality of acting, notably Courval who turned what was the serious side of the play into a farce by his actions onstage, overacting and not reacting. The intentionally farcical side to the play was well achieved by the players who drag out Florvilles confession. Here the script was occasionally fluent, and as time went by everything became clearer. Overall this felt unpolished, with story arcs not being completely thought through. It was a convoluted script not helped by poor acting. However, with a bit of a re-write, this could shine.
