A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody

This play is a little silly, but funny in places. The play begins with a millionaire Matthew Perry (Ritchie Basset) stating at a New Year's party (arranged by him and his wife) that his New Year’s resolution is to kill his wife, Julia, to have more fun after he has got rid of her. But thinking if he divorced her it would mean he would lose half his fortune. Mathew explains this to his wife Julia (played by Amanda Miller), she then promptly makes her own resolution not to be killed.  Of course this sets off a series of plots and murder attempts that only succeed in killing off unsuspecting bystanders.  To add to the the plot, Mathew's and Julia’s daughter Bunny (Alice Tilly) is soon to be engaged to Donald (Alex Green). Donald enlists the help of Plotnik (Andy Anderson), the detective, who has been unsuccessful in solving the mysteries behind the numerous murders on the estate. Taking place over the year and Mathew's and Julia’s dinner parties. The audience watches as the murders begin to unfold. 

This play, written by Ron Bernas, is a comedy, which I found to be not very funny, but in a few places it excelled. Director Andrew Manktelow you brought out the best in the cast and they were all excellent in their chosen roles. You also gave good direction and I could not fault this in any way - well done. Your cast of players did you proud, those being Ritchie Basset (Mathew Perry), Amanda Perry(Julia Perry), Kevin Lane (Buttram), Alice Tilley (Bunny), Alex Green (Donald) and Andy Anderson (Plotnik). This fine group of actors were all word perfect and kept the play rolling along nicely. The set was very solid and filled the stage and was very workable - well done to set building team…perfect. Props were to period as were the costumes. Joanna Godman as Stage Manager (Jo had to get on) and her team gave us quick simple set dressing in costume (I liked that a lot ).

Once again award winners RaTs have given Medway a high quality piece of theatre. Thank you Andrew and your cast for keeping up this standard. It's aways a pleasure for me to visit your productions at the Oasthouse Theatre. I look forward to ‘The Good Life' in May. Thank you for inviting me on behalf of NODA SE District 5.

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