MURDER
PLAY
Little
Baddow Drama at the Memorial Hall
26.04.13
Murder
Mystery Evenings are everywhere these days: on trains, in hotels, at
stately homes …
Not
surprisingly, Little Baddow's first foray into this popular genre is
a cut above the usual cardboard Christie/Cluedo offering. Brian J
Burton's play, while not Priestley, or even Francis Durbridge, does
have some clever twists in its fifty minutes, and it is performed,
without a hint of tongue-in-cheek irony, by an accomplished cast,
directed by Lindsay Lloyd.
Caroline
Ogden is superb as the cool, calculating wife, who, she confesses
up-front, has done away with her husband, on the sofa, with a
hat-pin. Supper guests John Peregrine and Vicky Tropman, not without
murder motives themselves, become cleverly manipulated accessories
after the fact. Ken Rolf is the Cornish bookseller; his sole
contribution before the interval an "old-fashioned look"
directed at his scheming spouse …
Discussion
ensues over the canapés, the audience tables encouraged to provide
their own resolution to the plot – Friday night's suggestions
included Max Clifford, Fifty Shades and sapphism, though not all at
once.
The
swift dénouement – everything wrapped up in five minutes – is
skilfully handled; while every member of the capacity audience had
differing views on the motives and morals of the characters, we all
agreed that this format [murder mystery in the round with food and
drink] was a welcome addition to Little Baddow's repertoire.
