A Fête Worse than Death

I always enjoy a good murder/mystery evening and your particular choice of  “A Fête Worse than Death” was an excellent decision. You have several actors whom I have seen now quite a few times and they can turn their hand to straight, silly, serious and comedy.

The show I saw had some serious moments but was littered with plenty of comedy to make a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable couple of hours.

First of all turning to the murder victim Malcolm Turner (Gordon Keys) and his wife Bunny (Helen Chewter), he was perhaps the serious part of the plot - even though marrows were one of the most important facets of his life. Wife.  Bunny was obviously having a rough time because of his obsession and turns to Nigel (Martin Sworn) for love and compassion. Nigel would do anything to be with Bunny forever. Malcolm has two nemeses, they are Trish Burton (Deborah Addicott), who has been usurped from her role as chairman by him and Father Mike (Robbie Tolhurst), who will go to any lengths to beat him in the best marrow competition.

The final two people, who do their best to solve the murder, are Violet Parmenter (Jenny Pickering), a slightly confused spinster who believes that the guest engaged to open the fête, Ray Martin (Jason Evans) a.k.a. Inspector Brady in a popular TV series really can solve murders.

All seven parts were well cast and the dialogue although very wordy and with a lot of cross-talking, coped with extremely confidently and efficiently.

The set was a country crafts tent within a village fête. I particularly liked the effect of the open air public address system.  

The author, Richard James, keeps one guessing as to the method, motive and practical details of the crime until the very end.  By half way through act two and having watched “Murder on the Orient Express” some years ago, I had an inkling of the final result. I will not say whether I was right or wrong in case any one has not seen this yet. However, I close with my congratulations to director, actors, backstage and technical crew for a very intriguing and entertaining experience.

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