Raw, emotional, sometimes shocking and with a change of moods that will leave you gasping.

That's Glossop's Partington Players' brilliant portrayal of Andrew Bovell's 'Things I Know To Be True' a production that stretches every nerve to near breaking point.

A poet once wrote that 'to every life some rain will fall.'

For the ordinary working class family whose lives Bovell's play revolves around, it comes down in bucketfuls. 

Normal life in suburban Australia suddenly implodes as a surge of secrets and long-hidden truths are revealed.

Drug taking, embezzlement, a sex change, mother and daughter friction, husband and wife marital uncertainty. bubble to the surface

Family members argue and fight, tensions boil over, a tragedy threatens the family's complete destruction, until in a final harrowing scene, a glimmer of hope emerges.

All starkly played out on a minimalistic stage that changes from a garden into a room, by simply shifting a child's swing and a few flowers  and adding a table and chairs.

The acting is superb in a production that mixes black comedy with stark chilling drama but spattered with a liberal amount of four letter words, the play is probably not suitable for young children.

Jayne Skudder's direction is brilliant, although at times I found the rather repetitive background music that runs through most of the play distracting.

At the end of Monday's first night performance the audience as one rose to its feet to show appreciation, by clapping, cheering, 'whooping and hollaring'.

I am sure an act of an incredible piece of work by one of the best casts I have seen on a Partington stage, will continue until the final performance at the Henry Street playhouse on Saturday.

Performers you were quite magnificent, all-round talent in a play that was both physically and mentally draining, simply, the best.

Adrian Stokes and Penny Smith, as the parents Bob and Fran Price, were an ever changing mix of emotions as patterns of the play changed.

And in the final stages tears probably fell as Bob's world crashed down on him.

Hope Davenport and Lauren Stokes as the couple's daughters Pip and Rosie, showed their complete wealth of acting talant, particularly faced with the daunting task in long dialogues to the audience on  a darkened stage.

Will Wilson put in a moving, poignant and tear jerking performance as son Mark Price, who finally gets the courage to confront his embittered parents that he wants to live the rest of his life as a woman.

And Adam Mayne as son Ben Price, who arrives home high on drugs to blurt out the admission that he has stolen from his employers to live the high life.

The destruction of family is almost complete as the children go their seperate ways, but for one parent there is even worse to come.

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