Soaked – The King’s Arms

As Greater Manchester Fringe makes a welcome return, The King’s Arms is appropriately in the hub of it all again! This time, directed by Peter Macqueen, the play ‘Soaked’, a La’al Marra production, is gracing its stage.

Written by Emma Rydal, ‘Soaked’ it is a story that many can identify with. The writing seems effortless, and the main characters could be any one of us chatting, interacting and simply trying to juggle life. Soaked is an intelligent piece of theatre with no pretentions and a thought-provoking storyline. At times it felt like the audience were presented with potentially a challenge as to whether it was appropriate to laugh or not. There are some seriously amusing parts of the play and Emma Rydal must be applauded for interjecting humour into such a serious thread of events.

With the theme of ‘alcohol’ at its forefront, Soaked tells the tale of ‘Imogen’ and ‘Rich’ and their lives, ups and downs, stresses and strains. Their one coping mechanism for the good, the bad, and the ugly, is quite simply, alcohol. But at some point they realise that a relationship with alcohol may need to come to an abrupt end. 

In addition to writing he play, Rydal plays the part of ‘Imogen’ – a career driven marketing director, mother and wife to Rich. She is a versatile actress with an intensity about her character that is consistent throughout the play. Her acting provided the audience with a sense of her thought process throughout the story as she was strong with her non-verbal skills and it was hard to take your eyes off her on stage. Her ‘acrobatic cartwheel scene’ was particularly hilarious yet very powerful. Following her fall, the laughter came to a sudden end, silencing the audience immediately.

Toby Gaffney plays the part of ‘Rich’, a strong character, slow to realise the actual problem that he and Imogen had with alcohol. He initially seemed to be claiming it as a necessity to keep life exciting, reminiscent of their past, more hedonistic days. However, although slow to realise the extent of the problem they both had with alcohol it was the time following a car accident, having been drinking, that he was forced into accepting that he too must try and abstain. At times it felt like Richs character required ‘something else’. He referred to his job ‘in IT’ ‘for the police’ but it may have been interesting for the audience to understand more about this and who he interacted with at work as we did with Imogen.

‘Maddie’, the new girl in the office, played by Stephanie Bradshaw was a strong character – almost playing two different characters  as the story progressed. Slowly but surely Maddie’s confidence came crashing down and she was a shell of her former self. A fabulous talent on stage and as a new actor, certainly a bright future lies ahead.

With such a great story line the cast thrived throughout. It would also be remiss not to mention the guzzling of a fair amount of liquid throughout the play too! The set involved several props and actors were effortless using them enabling the audience to sense that they were observing a real sense of ‘home life’ of the characters.

Not only is it fantastic that Manchester Fringe 2025 has returned but even more incredible that such a quality play like ‘Soaked’ are gracing the cities stage. 

On until 26th July at The Kings Arms Theatre, tickets are £14 and can be purchased from the Greater Manchester Fringe website at www.greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk

Reviewer: Angela Kelly

Reviewed: 24th July 2025

North West End UK Rating: