A Murder is Announced

Dame Agatha Christie died fifty years ago and, remembering her Oxfordshire connections, several drama groups in District 12 are marking this anniversary.  The murder mystery is a fascinating genre, as it makes very specific demands of the actors.  In most plays the performers are focused on the development of character, on giving an insight into the motivations and emotions of whoever they are portraying.  While this remains true in a murder mystery, these facets are layered with artifice and deceit.  Who has got something to hide?  Is that character actually who they claim to be?  And where is the greed, or enmity, or jealousy that might have driven one of these people to commit murder?

Of course, much of the fun (if that’s quite the right word) in watching a murder mystery is in trying to work out “whodunnit”, and much of the fun in staging such a work is in misleading the audience while ensuring that there are sufficient clues for them to reach the correct conclusion.  I think both the audience and the company at the Friday night performance had quite a lot of fun.  However, this does mean that many of the actors play roles in which a degree of dissembling is required, and so issues such as inconsistent characterisation, usually something to avoid, might actually be necessary.  Who amongst this talented company of twelve is actually trying to mislead us, and do they succeed?

The production certainly looked a picture, and once the house lights had dimmed the tabs hurtled back to reveal a solidly constructed box set packed with period detail.  For once the wide but shallow stage in Eynsham Village Hall was an advantage, as the set design comprised two adjacent rooms that had been knocked together, with a prominent support column in the middle of the upstage wall and access doors to either side.  One of these is supposedly redundant … but both doors proved to be equipped with well-finished returns.  This practical set was elevated by the quality of the set dressing: the Queen Anne style winged arm chairs were complemented by various cabinets, dressers and occasional tables broadly typical of the post-war years, together with details such as a metal magazine rack and a vintage telephone.  The most impressive aspect was the depth of detail, so for example the drinks cabinet housed an array of glasses and decanters, and the fine detailing extended into more personal properties such as a silver cigarette case and copies of the local paper.

The outfits reinforced the early 50s period feel and aided the performers in their characterisations.  Most if not all of the characters had at least one change of costume, in keeping with a drama set over several days.  The period styling extended to details such as the cut of the trousers, the seams on the stockings, the design of the performers’ (occasionally oversized) shoes and the Police Inspector’s tie-clip.  This attention to detail was also evident in hair styling, such as Patrick’s razor-sharp parting.

The director had clearly worked hard on characterisation with her talented cast, and for the most part they found the sweet spot for a murder mystery: persuasive characters shot through with enough mystery and ambiguity to hold the audience’s attention and engage them in trying to resolve the plot: “Whodunnit”, in fact.  I was certainly caught up in the whole thing.  The show apparently sold out in advance, and the enduring appeal of Agatha Christie’s work, coupled with the Bartholomew Players’ many qualities and impressively high standards of production, means that this fact at least is relatively straightforward to explain.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.