Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Adam Leyland, Laura Connelly, Adam Nicholls, Liam-Powell-Berry, Callum Forbes, Daniel Hubbard, Thomas Galashan, Warren Kettle, Faye Caddick, Megan Bond, Thomas Heyes, Sam Brown, Mike Manning, George Wills, Aaron Cork, Jacob Simpson.

Genius is not a word to bandy round like a bag of sweets that has been pinched from the local shop and sucked to death by a gang of young tearaways determined to have something on their resume to take onto adult hood, the moment of defiance was born, when being the daring mastermind behind such a great plan was the moment the intellect was sealed.

For Bob The Russian criminal mastermind, the word genius reflects everything that the sixth production by Naughty Corner has taken its stride. A writer who makes the story seem the most elegantly sewn story told but who is not afraid to relish in the absolute barmy and positively crackers, a cast who trust instinctively in the vision placed before them with a sense of being brave, of being daring and defiant enough to put into place political aspiration and human belief into the very heart of the play. For in Bob The Russian, Mike Dickinson excels himself, a touch of the madness, a drop of the lunatic and beautiful possession of long game plot, and it is one to savour unconditionally.

The World Cup is arguably the greatest single sporting event on the planet, it is though, quite rightly one that has its detractors, too mired in corruption, of controversy, drugs, cheating and potentially causing civil unrest between competing nations; it is also one that is beautiful, a festival of football, all nations competing, each player hoping to be amongst a favoured few to be allowed to touch the fabled, most important trophy of them all. For Bob, just Bob, the World Cup also proves to the biggest distraction of them all, a plan set in motion, particular people with skills, and a heist of epic proportions, and each thought pulled together by a cast that truly got under the skin of the character they were inhabiting.

With tremendous performances by Adam Nicholls as failed magician Lyles Larue, the superb Laura Connelly as Rita, the outstanding Liam Powell-Berry as the instigator of violence and Thomas Galashan as Russian crime lord Friend Zarin, Bob The Russian is the play that Naughty Corner has been leading towards, not withstanding for example the generous Church Blitz, this particular play has the fortitude to take shots at the moral supposed supremacy of the World Cup hosts and their own disastrous efforts on Human rights.

Genius, from start to finish, excellent direction, fantastic choreography, dancing Putins, and a stage filled with actors who understand the complexity of the piece but who make it endearing enough to allow the plot to reign with a sense of crowning majesty; utter genius.

Ian D. Hall