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Death by punchlines Murdered to Death
Wolverhampton Grand
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TAKE a 1930s country house party with a widowed owner and her
niece, who inherits the pile if the old girl pops her green wellies, add
for guests a retired Colonel and his fearsome wife, a dodgy French art
dealer with an ‘Allo ‘Allo accent and his equally dodgy lady friend and
throw in the unfaithful old family retainer and the stage is set for
mystery.
And once Miss Maple arrives, like a literary Angel of Death, you
know someone is not going to make it to the next act alive, still
nothing like a good murder or so for giving everyone a good laugh.
Peter Gordon’s spoof of an Agatha Christie mystery, written in 1993, is
a delightful romp and the first in the Inspector Pratt trilogy. Pratt,
the name is a clue, is the bungling detective, a sort of Home Counties
Clouseau who not so much mixes up his words as puts them through a
blender.
He is played with great fun by Norman Pace in a superb cast of 10 in
this Ian Dickens production. The part is not an easy one as Pratt speaks
in a fractured language that bears little more than a passing
acquaintance to English and at the same time it has to be kept fresh and
funny to avoid becoming a tedious overlong joke and Pace manages it on
all counts.
He is assisted by PC Thomkins (Christopher Elderwood) who finds working
with Pratt is a very dangerous occupation. Particularly in a
reconstitution, as Pratt would have it, which uses the loaded murder
weapon with the constable playing the part of the target . . . sorry
victim.
Among the guests Roland Oliver excels as Colonel
Craddock, old chap, the gin-soaked ex-Army desk soldier who now spends
much of his time at his gentleman’s club while his battle-axe of a wife,
Margaret, old girl, played by Sandra Dickinson
doesn’t
suffer fools gladly. She is obviously going to get on really well with
Pratt.
The Colonel might have no motive for murder until there has been a
murder but then he has a motive for the murder after the first murder if
you see what I mean . . . oh just go and see it.
Darren Machin as Pierre Marceau, the French art connoisseur could have
stepped right out of Rene’s cafe with an accent as authentic as French
fries. He has a dark, and still rather tacky, secret which makes him a
prime suspect when the assembled characters start dropping like flies. Inspector Pratt (Norman Pace) battles his sheer incompetence to find the killer with Dorothy (Chloe Newsome) his chief suspect
The women by comparison are almost normal with Mildred (Erin Geraghty)
who owns the house just trying to be a good host and providing a victim
we won’t miss too much. Her niece Dorothy (Chloe Newsome)
meanwhile sees her role as looking after the guests and looking after
her aunt’s interests. The fact she is the main beneficiary of Mildred’s
will puts her in the frame for the first demise while the fact she knows
Pierre’s secret puts her in danger of becoming the second corpse.
Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington (Michelle Hardwick) comes over as a bit
dodgy though. Upper class with barbs which is not a good combination and
she is good for any death around the place.
Everything would have been fine except for Miss Maple (Elizabeth
Williams) turning up - you would hardly be surprised to find she is a
Miss Marple character - then everyone needs to check the script to see
how many pages their character have left.
Considering that if Miss JoanMaple goes to the village newsagents
someone invariably ends up dead by the shootin’ ‘n fishin’
mags it is surprising anyone ever lets her over their doorsteps but
Mildred did and that was her undoing.
Bumbling through it all is the wonderful Victor Spinetti as Bunting, the
butler with a taste for the sherry, the brandy . . . whatever the cork
reveals. He shuffles, scowls and slurps his insolent way through, even
managing a celebration for his good fortune from the will - making him a
suspect as well. CHRISTMAS CRACKERS
Some of the jokes are a bit old, some could have come straight from
Christmas crackers, but there are so many of them and they come so fast
delivered so well by an excellent cast that you hardly notice and what
makes Murdered to Death so clever is the fact it is a spoof with plenty
of laughs but still retains that element of a murder mystery in that you
still want to know whodunit.
As ever in an Ian Dickens production the set is a solid, believable
affair although there were a couple of times when the geography of
Bagshot House seems to go awry with people leaving through the door to
the kitchen and dining room and reappearing moments later on the other
side of the stage from the hall.
This is the final play in the Grand’s successful four week Ian Dickens
rep season which is finishing with a laugh. Directed by Giles Watling it
runs to 31-07-10. Roger Clarke |
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