Death by Chocolate

Death by Chocolate is a murder mystery play written by Lesley Gunn, and tells of the murder of the owner of a chocolate factory. As per the usual format of murder-mystery evenings, the audience are fed clues throughout the play, often designed to confuse, and at the interval the cast mingle with the audience and answer their questions. An all-knowing inspector of police supervises the investigation, and at the conclusion the audience are invited to name the murderer or murderers. The producer, Marc Skinner has the discretion to alter the ending slightly each evening so that subsequent audiences don’t already know the answer.

A production like this requires the cast to be able to ad-lib convincingly, especially when the plot is changed, or in response to audience questions. They must know their back-story and stick to it. By and large this was the case, and congratulations are due to the actors, particularly those who are inexperienced, for managing so well.

Matthew Lee played S. Herbert Fountain, the owner of Fountain Chocolates, who comes to a sticky end. He looked the part and escaped being questioned by the audience because he was by that time, dead of course!

Amie Wallace played DCI Abbott, who investigates the murder and directs proceedings in the latter part of the play. She came across as confident, knowing and efficient.

The suspects all had chocolate-related names. Rachel Munns played Lin D’Or, a Swiss chocolatier with a hard shell, never dropping her accent once. Michelle Marshall played Jelly Bean, the company secretary, as a put-upon, reliable, lovable woman, who turned out to have some dark secrets. Sarah Kendall as Dolly Mixtures played the apparent airhead blonde who has seduced the victim and is the beneficiary of his will. Is she the murderer? Parma Violet, sweet and innocent in appearance, was played well by Chloe Gleadhill; and the union representative and jobsworth, Cherry Pips, clutched her rule book and kept us all amused. The final suspect was Toby Le Rone, Lin D’Or’s rival chocolatier, played as a nonchalant Glaswegian by Jonathan Ireland. Had the competition between the Scottish and Swiss chocolate masters resulted in the murder of their employer?

Marc Skinner as Producer / Director has assembled a cast who slickly set the scenes and guided us through the scenarios. It is never easy to perform on a small stage like this, and the cast managed well, moving furniture and props in the scene changes quietly and efficiently. They had obviously been well-drilled. The sets were simple and effective, and all props worked well. I particularly liked the colour-coded costumes that the cast wore, reflecting their confectionery-oriented names – a nice twist.

The lighting and sound were efficient and well-managed, and I appreciated the incidental music which was all chocolate-themed. Thank you, particularly for introducing me to the very funny Chocolate Song by Marcus Turner, which installed itself as an earworm on my drive home.

Thank you to John and Genevieve Stocker, who made me so welcome. The cabaret-style seating was appropriate for the appreciative audience, and the front-of-house arrangements were good. The programmes and posters will be entered into the NODA competition for 2023 as they both meet the requirements.

As a bonus, I managed to guess 50% of the murderers- not bad for an amateur sleuth!

 

 

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