MURDERED TO DEATH
TOO FRIENDLY THEATRE COMPANY
LITTLE THEATRE
There have been over 500 productions of Peter Gordon’s popular parody of an Agatha Christie 1930’s country house mystery and this one by the Too Friendly Theatre Company could stand alongside any of them.
The play is just one of a popular trilogy featuring the imbecilic Inspector Pratt and director Cliff Gillies took centre stage as the manic policeman, a comical interpretation which owed much to Tony Hancock. He did it so well that it was a pity some of the dialogue he was forced to speak was cringeworthy in the extreme.
Helen Haygarth played the part of super sleuth Miss Maple although, with legs Betty Grable would have died for. She looked far too attractive and sprightly to convince as a Joan Hickson look-alike, despite the grey wig.
Similarly, Mark Haygarth perfectly captured the voice and mannerisms of the bluff Colonel Craddock, henpecked by his acerbic wife (Lisa Mogan), but, again, he looked a good 50 years too young, not to mention too thin, for the role. Perhaps the Too Friendly company ought to start recruiting at the Derby and Joan.
John Windsor played the part Sergeant Thomkins as if he had been a policeman all his life although the ‘joke’ about him being called ‘Thomson’- (‘No, Thomkins, Sir’) palled after the 200th utterance.
For me, the standout role of the evening was that of the butler, Bunting, superbly played by Peter Roney with a clever line in dry humour. Bunting is the bane of his mistress’s life, his mistress (in the servile meaning of the word) being Sue Thomas as the posh hostess, Mildred, anxious to resurrect her long-dead affair with the Colonel.
As the high class piece of eye-candy, Elizabeth , Joanne Wasilaw effortlessly switched accents between Mayfair and Billingsgate Market whilst Rob Darby, complete with beret but without the onions, was able to try out his pidgin French in his role as her artist boyfriend, Pierre, Andrea Culkin shone as the enigmatic Dorothy who was odds-on to cop for the money should Mildred meet with an untimely demise. Which, of course, we knew she would.
The actors all acquitted themselves well and the audience laughed constantly throughout the evening, even breaking into applause at some of the lines, making the night a great success.
For myself, I have trouble with farces. There are no characters, just caricatures. Plots are meaningless so who cares what happens anyway? The audience around me may be convulsed with mirth, and the cast onstage look like they are having great fun, but I sit there thinking how ridiculous the whole thing is.
I would much rather see this talented company perform a serious play rather than infantile dross like this. But then, that is the nature of farce. And I have trouble with farces.
Rating 2.5/5 Acting better than the play deserved. |
What do you think?