AGATHA CRUSTY AND THE VILLAGE HALL MURDERS

The play is very funny, quirkily written with lots of innuendo and humour, and as such needed lots of pace, which essentially the cast got. 

I didn’t feel the outdoor setting suited the setting of the play as well as some, and the equivalent of blackouts to change scenes were done as speedily as possible, but still were not conducive to a streamlined production.  I admire the cast and backstage team for their undoubted skill and dedication.

On the night I attended, two of the cast were suffering from bad throats, and went on with the aid of handheld mics – which meant we could hear them as well as we could the rest of the cast.  Not ideal for them, but it worked, and well done to everyone for making the best of the situation.

The weather is always unpredictable when planning an outdoor production, luckily the rain held off, although the wind was biting, but experience tells us to take plenty of layers!!  A nice touch was to give the audience the chance to guess who the murderer was – I got it wrong (despite having seen the play before)!!

The cast was headed by Shelley Healy as Agatha Crusty – an iconic part in some ways, but one which was very much Shelley’s own.  Her protagonist, Detective Inspector Twigg, played by Maude Collins Pallet was a good character for Maude to get her teeth into, and she gave us a good portrayal of the slightly bumbling DI, who managed to accuse everyone but the right person until Agatha stepped in and solved the mystery. 

The Village Hall Committee was headed by the redoubtable Eleanor Wagstaff, giving Elaine Hartless a great chance to devolve a good character, which she took advantage of, and her slavish devotion to Reverend Toby Bishop – Richard Hartless – was well-achieved.  Richard created a typical vicar, a little other-worldly and not entirely aware of the effect he had on the ladies of his parish!

Margie Skinner as Agatha’s sister-in-law Alice, was suitably restrained, a good foil to the forthrightness of Agatha.

I enjoyed Manjit Rostom’s portrayal of Isabella Battersby, a plain-speaking woman, not afraid to make her feelings clear, nicely done.  Zara Radford as the life model Mandy, also gave us a lively, obviously more unrefined young lady, an excellent contrast to the more upper class characters.

Julie Nye created the dual characters of Olivia and Oliver Truscott-Pratt with some nice attention to detail in both characters, while Martin John King got a good contrast between his dual characters of Harry Knott and PC Lockett.  Well done.

The final character was the rough and ready cleaner, Maisie Grimm, played with intention and understanding by Joanna Page.  I liked her portrayal, and her obvious scheming within the group.

I enjoyed the play, but felt it needed a little more pace at times, and some more attention to detail in some of the costumes would have benefitted the look of the piece.  But overall a good evening’s entertainment, and my thanks to Breakaway for their hospitality.

Nova Horley

NODA Representative - NODA East District 3

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.