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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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A ripping good yarn . . . or is it? Strictly Murder The Grange Players Grange Playhouse **** WHEN it comes to bluff, double bluff and
take away the bluff you first thought of, this Brian Clemens' play takes
some beating. No one is who they are supposed to be, or at
least they say they are, apart from loyal mum-to-be Suzi Hinchcliffe -
and we only have her word for it that that is who she is, or indeed that
she is even pregnant! The time is the spring of 1939 with the world on the brink of the Second World War but that is hardly a concern in the sunny backwater of rural Province . . . or maybe it is. Suzi, played with a sort of demure, domesticated
angst by Becki Jay, lives a poor but idyllic life with her artist
feller, Peter Meredith, played somewhat edgily by Adam Woodward. They
get by with what Suzi earns at the nearby hotel and from the paintings
Peter sells to tourists. Peter always seems on the move, never still,
nervous of his own shadow. It seems a little strange at first but as the
play goes on we start to understand why. Here is a man, not the man we
thought he was incidentally, with secrets he wants to keep hidden and a
fear of being exposed as . . . but first things first. We also realise
Peter can lie easily, if not always totally convincingly, almost as a
way of life. Woodward is convincing as the quietly spoken painter of poppies telling his porkies and we all know he is obviously using Suzi in some way. We don't know why or how but we do know he is probably a wrong 'un and is most definitely avoiding the marriage she craves. It is a clever performance to leave us unsure until the very end whether Peter, or whoever he really is, is a hero or a villain amid all the twists and turns. Just to add to the mystery is Josef, their peasant neighbour who appears to be a few centimes short of a franc and wanders around with an ancient rifle looking like a reject from the French revolution. MAD AS A HATTER Alex Barzdo doesn't overplay the fact the bloke
is mad as a hatter and cleverly makes him act and sound fairly normal
while doing and saying abnormal things which makes him even more
disconcerting. We are assured that he is safe but loonies with loaded
guns are never the most reassuring of combinations. All their lives are changed for ever when a
well-dressed, well-spoken mysterious Englishman called Ross arrives and
confronts Peter and part of his terrible secret is revealed. It would
ruin it to reveal Ross's fate . . . suffice to say he is not needed in
the second act. Which is just as well as that is when Ross's twin
brother appears following the trail of his sibling who has mysteriously
vanished during the intermission. As the Ross twins are both are played
by David Weller, any longevity of Ross No 1 would have been an
inconvenience to say the least. Ross No 2 first confronts Suzi and then brings in
his colleague Miriam Miller, played in a bossy, authoritarian way by
Stephanie Quance, who starts to reveal the terrible truth about Giles
Hudson, the man we all thought was Peter Merideth, if of course it is
really the truth and /or/maybe he is, or is not, Peter Meridith . . . or
Giles Hudson. Still with us at the back?
The pair reveal they are (pause for dramatic
effect) from Scotland Yard and Ross then proceeds to add the gory detail
to Peter, or Giles or . . . the bloke who paints poppies' heinous crime
and then our diligent duo from the Yard . . . if they are who they say
they are of course . . . proceed to set a trap for Peter or Giles or
whoever. Weller manages to switch from suave charming
Englishman to evil, snarling brute at the drop of a hat – the hat was a
fine Trilby from Bond Street with his brother's initials inside if you
must know – and he managed the distinction of not only dying twice on
stage but also the remarkable feat of dying from gunshot wounds several
seconds before the gun that actually shot him was fired – the trials of
opening nights. The far-fetched plot is straight out of the
1930s and it would have been no surprise if Richard Hannay or Bulldog
Drummond had walked through the door chasing Nazi spies and perhaps that
is where this thriller falls uncomfortably between two stools. Despite having the feel and attitudes of the
1930s it was first produced in only 2006 and the audience and indeed the
play never seemed quite sure whether it was a send up of the period spy
genre or a serious thriller, thus we had lines such as Ross's
pretentious wine snobbery as he tastes an expensive red and tells
Meredith he can "taste the blackcurrant, but there's something else . .
.” The audience all knew what the something else
actually was, eliciting giggles all around and there were a few more
lines, particularly from Ross, that produced laughs but no one seemed
quite sure if they were meant to chuckle or not. In the end the good guys won but you will have to
go along to see who the good guys were, of if indeed they really were
the good guys . . . Directed by David Stone, with an excellent set by
Martin Groves, the intriguing tale of murder is strictly to 24-11-12. Roger Clarke |
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