Agatha Crusty and the Village Hall Murders

This play was a comedy homage to all the crime writer series and unlikely investigator stories, think “Murder She Wrote” mixed with “Miss Marple” and maybe a touch of “Midsommer Murders” and the outcome was chaos, comedy and stereotypical characters.

The action took place in a village church hall which was well portrayed with a very convincing, well decorated set. The scene changes consisted of the rearranging of the chairs and tables for the different activities, and this was done with choreographed precision by the stage manager Pete Wright dressed as a caretaker – I even noticed the occasional cheeky spring in his step. There was noticeable attention to detail with the props for all of the “classes” which helped with the village hall feel.  Costumes were appropriate to the characters and care was taken to change to depict the movement of time. Lighting was appropriate for the scene and the sound was clear.

The first character we met was Harry played by Gary Blackbird. This character had some very funny one liners and a satirical personality which Gary portrayed very well. Each of the other users of the village hall had unique personalities which were well played; Toby the bumbling vicar played by Malcolm Quinn and Elenor played by Jean Ord had fun with their flirtatious friendship and Jean’s Snow White’s Wicked queen portrayal was so different to Elenor’s character and depicted very well. Alan Oliver gave us Bernard a somewhat flamboyant cookery teacher, Jan Foster the quiet and mysterious Alice and Sarah Hutchinson as Masie the cleaner seemed quiet and insignificant but there was a real change in her character which was well played. Of course the village hall had a life drawing class to which model Mandy played by Alicia Cook attended, Mandy then got to demonstrate a “stage death” which was hilarious. The crazy character line up continued with twins Olivia and Oliver both well depicted by Annette Morris with numerous quick changes, Oliver being particularly over the top with his shooting hobby and hilarious array of captured “game” including fluffy bunnies and an eagle! Sgt Locket the local friendly police officer played by Alex Morris needed to call in reinforcements in the form of Detective Inspector Twigg. Lee Passmoor used his comic expertise to bring this incompetent, pompous character to life with the help of an easel and ridiculous but funny acronyms to explain his theories, he was really clueless but fortunately Agatha Crusty who was visiting her relative Alice solved the murders of the village hall committee members, Agatha and Inspector Twigg had met before and didn’t have much regard for each other. Susan Haswell portrayed the author of crime fiction and amateur sleuth Agatha taking the role in her experienced stride and commanded her every scene, she portrayed a calm approach amongst the surrounding madness and mayhem and summing up how to solve a murder in the final scene, I loved the obvious disregard she had for Inspector Twigg portrayed with just a look of distain.

Did I work out “who done it”, not a chance, but I did have an enjoyable evening with lots of laughs. Well done to Lee and the team. 

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