A Tomb With A View

"A Tomb With A View" is a macabrely funny comedy from the pen of Norman Robbins, with as many red herrings and twists in the plot as any good Miss Marples murder mystery!

A well-designed set recreated the suspiciously empty-shelved library, complete with secret panel, of Monument House, the sombre and rather sinister family home of the Tomb family. Following the death of their father, Septimus, whose portrait with mad staring eyes hangs menacingly over the fireplace, the siblings have been summonsed by the family solicitor, Hamilton Penworthy.  He reveals that a large proportion of the millions Mr. Tomb invested has gone missing and the house and estate have been bequeathed to a complete stranger, a young authoress Freda Mountjoy, who has been invited to join the family for the reading of the Will. Mayhem ensues, with more and more corpses mounting up, whilst the audience is kept guessing almost to the last moment as to who the real culprit and murderer is.

For this production the talented cast had decided to direct the play themselves, with lighting and sound support provided by Matt Squirrell and Joe Higham.  Whilst this is commendable, it did appear at times that there was uncertainty amongst the cast as to the next move or whose line it was, inevitably slowing the pace somewhat and on several occasions, the services of the prompt, Andy McMillan, were required.  This resulted in an over-run of the play by some good twenty minutes, or so.  At times, too, it was difficult to hear every word clearly from the back of the hall.

Nevertheless, the cast were obviously enjoying themselves and had created some wonderfully OTT characters - Will Murray as Penworthy, the slightly obsequious Solicitor who has his own murderous plans to get his hands on the family fortune, but gets bumped off in Act II; Tracey Murray as Emily Tomb, in jodpurs and hacking jacket, possibly the only sane one of the family and rather despairing of her sibling rivals; Matthew Fyleman, who gave a bombastic performance as the petulant elder brother Lucien, who dabbles in scientific experiments in his laboratory and Nina Jacobs thoroughly enjoyed herself as the rather dotty sister, all in black lace, with colourful flowery wellington boots, renowned for her home-made wines, which have a fatal effect on those unfortunate enough to sample them.  Consequently, the much-admired rose beds do rather well with their added human compost!  Yvonne Hannant gave a convincing performance as the innocent and caring nurse (and secret wife) of Marcus Tomb, another son who rather believes he's the reincarnation of Julius Caeser - well portrayed here by Tony Pullen complete with Roman toga.  The last visible member of the Tomb family is Monica, vivacious in a figure-hugging velvet dress and man-mad, enthusiastically played by Jacqueline Pullen. Several references are also made during the play to another brother Oliver, whose chilling werewold cries are heard at intervals and who is confined in his cell in the basement.

Taking care of this odd-ball family is their long-suffering but loyal housekeeper Agatha Hammond, well played by Lesley Krzyon, who's convined that Septimus is still alive and responsible for masterminding a plan to rid himself of his mad family.  Lizzie McMillan was delightful as Freda Mountjoy, the young attractive authoress, who steps unwittingly into this mad-house and having reluctantly agreed to accept her inheritance, is poisoned by Penworthy in Act I.  Steve Dunn played a good supporting role as her secretary Peregrine Potter, a rather bashful and retiring type, who has to cope with some rather dexterous undressing and re-dressing, is subsequently pursued by Monica and finally reveals that he is the writer and that Freda was his agent!

Along with the rest of the small but supportive audience on this first night, I certainly was kept guessing until the unexpected conclusion and thoroughly enjoyed this evening of murder and mystery.

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