It was undoubtedly one of the most high-profile showbiz trials from the last few years and now you get to have your own pitch-side seat to watch how the action unfolded in this fantastic re-make thanks to court transcripts.
It doesn’t matter if you followed all the twists and turns during the original libel case last year, this revival of that drama from the Royal Courts of Justice still manages to have you gripped. And it’s laugh-out-loud funny.
Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial kicks off with Coleen Rooney (Laura Dos Santos) under a spotlight reading out her infamous reveal post which named…Rebekah Vardy’s (Lucy May Barker) Instagram account as the one which leaked her private information from the site to The Sun.
Like most pre-match games there’s commentary from pundits - cue Halema Hussain and Nathan McMullen who jump onto the stage with their high-energy enthusiasm and guide us in with a great build-up.
And then, of course, it’s the first day of court and we meet the women themselves, it’s like a World Cup final with everything riding on winning and it’s also like boxing - the gloves are well and truly off.
Vardy and Rooney are so true to the truth that it is like being taken back to the day of the original case and watching both women arriving at court in the news.
Both actors grab the characteristics and mannerisms of the women they are playing so well - there’s a comic side to it because it’s ever so slightly exaggerated but at the same time it’s so real.
This complex whodunnit would not have been possible to follow without the barristers. Rooney had David Sherborne (Tom Turner), a barrister of the stars, while Vardy was represented by Hugh Tomlinson QC (Jonnie Broadbent). It seems almost impossible to even think the actors were actors. The claims and counter-claims came thick and fast in the show and at so many points you forget that the barristers you see in front of you are not real barristers but the way they both played those roles was absolutely spot on, flawless and at times, very funny.
Whatsapp messages - whether they were missing or were part of the evidence in court - were fundamental and referred to throughout. When a specific message was mentioned, the stage became like the children’s game musical statues - the ‘song’ (acting) stops and everyone freezes. A spotlight shines onto the actor who reads out said message, the light goes off, the 'music '(acting) starts. And so it repeats, but it was very artful and helped add a layer of extra suspense and spice throughout.
This show is also quite clever because through the pundits, adapter Liv Hennessy, has been able to highlight the legal complexities of libel cases without it weighing down on the performance.
It’s based on the court transcripts and this condensed version of two halves also manages to hone in on the long-running debate over celebrities and privacy - what is private and what is in the public interest and this show will leave that idea in your mind to ponder.
Despite most people already knowing the outcome of the case, this is a fantastic and shameless guilty pleasure.
It runs until 20 May.
Review: Sunita Jaiswal Photo: Pamela Raith