MURDER BY THE
BOOK
Phoenix
Theatre Group at Christ Church
07.10.11
Jim Hutchon was in the Hall at Christ Church
Director
Chris Wright's treatment
of this complex, funny and stylish comedy murder thriller is to keep
the throttle pressed firmly to the metal from line one. He kept the
speed and pressure up as the actors were allowed to develop really
very convincing characters. The improbable murder plot had
innumerable twists and turns which were dealt with by a talented cast
with a lot of comic potential between them.
Andy
Millward keeps up an almost Noel Coward repartee as a novelist and
critic planning to do away with his estranged adulterous wife, while
she, Tricia Childs, giving as good as she gets, plans a similar fate
for him. Both seek the help of an hilariously confused Syd Smith as
his publisher and her lover. Steve Holding痴
dark
brooding looks lighten up considerably with impressive comic talents
as the fluent-talking neighbour who is not what he seems, and boy
friend of the secretary, Jean Speller, who has her own agenda.
In
this Christie meets Coward amalgam, nothing and nobody are what they
seem, but, after a while any weaknesses in the plot are swallowed up
in growing laughter. There were occasional dead spots in the
narrative drive, but the Friday night audience left with a sense of a
really entertaining night of fun.
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