• A Murder is Announced – The Review

    As I sat waiting for the curtain to rise on the evening’s entertainment, I realized that although I am a huge fan of the TV’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries, I had never seen a stage version of nor even read an Agatha Christie novel. No, I have not seen The Mouse Trap either! I must be about the only person in the UK who has not seen it.

    The curtain did rise to reveal a wonderful set. There had been huge attention to detail. One really did feel as though we were having a peep into the lives of the people before us. I never fail to be thrilled by a table lamp or standard lamp lit just as the actor “switches it on.” This act appears to be so simple, so effective and yet not as easy to achieve as one might think. Here were absolutely perfect! So well done those of you who were involved in set props and lighting. Excellent stuff.

    No less good was the costume. Several costume changes gave visual interest and helped create the sense of time passing. It was a delight to watch. My only slight reservation was Julia’s handbag. It rarely seemed to “belong” to her and seemed almost inappropriate since she was “at home’” in Lettie’s house. There was also the mystery of the constantly re-adjusted cushions. Sometimes, this particular cushion was laid flat, then quite as deliberately arranged to support the back. Was I missing something? Were there some crib sheets hidden in the pattern or had somebody had a delicate bit of surgery??

    Dare I say, and it is probably a very healthy sign of the times, that the cigarette smoking was wildly unconvincing and thus a little distracting.

    Patrick (Francis Pindar) played a “crisp” young man whose “sister” Julia (Sophie Johnstone) was positively unpleasant. They were convincingly scratchy with each other, making it a real shock when we discovered their true relationship. There was a nice contrast when they became the softer, gentler lovers. However, Julia had more to reveal and she effectively created a sense of indecision in us as we tried to decide if we liked her or not.

    Mrs Swettenham (Lisa Arnold) presented a delightful, genteel busybody (I just know she had smelling salts in her bag) whose son Edmund (Nathan Farrell) played the supportive son, but we discovered he had an agenda of his own. However, before we really got to that, he proved not entirely unexpectedly, to take an impish pleasure in giving his mum “a terrible turn.” Was he the one who dun it??? Phillipa Haymes (Becky Smith) was also part of Edmund’s agenda. Becky’s playing was very assured and her character well developed. Her very defensive and slightly prickly response when questioned by the Inspector put doubt in our minds. This sweet, unmarried mother/widow, was perhaps not as straightforward as we thought. Our unease increased on learning that poor Letitia had changed her will in Phillipa’s favour. Her reaction to this was perhaps too sweet? Was she the one we should be pointing the finger at?

    Mitzi (Collette Wighton) provided us with light relief by the cartload. Her inexpert use of English, the heavy “Hungarian” accent at various times made her the most suspect of the characters, especially as she found it difficult to sort out fantasy and truth. A delightfully drawn character!

    The heart of the plot was handled mainly by Letitia Blacklock (Carol McGlone) who used the set so convincingly that I really began to believe it was her home, the ailing, confused but really “all there” Dora Bunner (Tracey Gillard ) and the iconic Miss Marple, beautifully played by Annabelle Farrell.

    Left to unravel the mystery and find the murderer, was the ever assured Inspector Craddock (Richard Peachey) and his note taking assistant Sgt Mellors, the very dead Rudi Scherz (both parts played by Richie Halsey-Watson, the producer!)

    With suitable eleventh hour precision, all was revealed and the person what did it, was not the person we all thought had did it!

    Though the whole performance had a slightly sedate pace especially in the first half, it was very well put together and was a most enjoyable bit of theatre. There was a sense that everyone took an equal share of the responsibility for making it work regardless of the size of their role. Real team work and much credit to the director, Stephen Whittock, for this.

    This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 9:16 am and is filed under Reviews, Theatre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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