Vardy v Rooney The Wagatha Christie Trial - Altrincham Garrick

OF all the subjects I’ve ever studied, Law, an integral part of a journalist’s training, was by far the driest and most difficult.

The good news here is if the legal speak starts sapping the concentration, welcome relief comes courtesy of Robert Crumpton and Beverley Stuart-Cole as the football pundits passing an opinion or two on a court trial involving the wives of footballers Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy.

Crumpton plays a blinder - please forgive the pun - when he briefly plays Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy by conveying their unmistakable mannerisms while not remotely resembling either soccer star.

Neither of these portrayals are flattering. But both are hilarious.

Based on transcripts from the actual trial, we see Rebekah Vardy standing accused of leaking details of Coleen Rooney’s private life to the national press via social media.

While Parissa Zampanour and Lauren Brown are extremely watchable as Vardy and Rooney, the feuding wives, its impossible to really empathise with either of them as this is a play that transports us to an alien world, a world which will forever attract nothing more than a morbid curiosity from mere mortals like me.

John Keen is equally good as Hugh Tomlinson QC, convincing as the silver tongued barrister who spends most of act one analysing Rebekah Vardy’s testimony with the microscopic precision with which his character’s profession is inextricably linked.

But in an age in which social media is an important part of so many people’s lives, plays like this are very, very relevant.

Until June 7. Tickets are available from 0161 928 1677 or www.altrinchamgarrick.co.uk.

Star rating - 3.5 out of 5.

Photo by Martin Ogden.