Death by Fatal Murder

One immediately sees the set in this studio theatre as you take your seats, so this gave me an opportunity to admire the substantial box set, I could see why it had taken a whole day for the get-in. This was a well designed and built set, period style wallpaper and furniture with many suitable props and soft furnishings. We also saw the dead body of PC Atkins lying on the floor, how Andrew Wilson lay so still for so long I don’t know, in fact we didn’t realise the body was a real person until he got up and left the stage in the blackout.

This was a humorous and entertaining play, the third in a trilogy by Peter Gordon and I can understand why Peterborough Playgoers presented this, the final instalment. They had a star in Calvin Lawrence as Inspector Pratt who had played this role in all three plays, a regret that I hadn’t seen the previous plays. Not an easy role with the mangled English language that his character used, however this did not interfere with his great comic timing, his intonation and his physicality. Calvin obviously enjoyed this role and this came across to the audience who were drawn in to his interaction with his fellow cast members and the tale he had to tell. He was ably supported by Josh Bacon playing his rather more sensible sidekick Constable Tompkins, he delivered with good timing his ripostes and kept a perfectly straight face whilst responding to Inspector Pratt’s enquiries, he provided throughout an admirable foil. Chris Butterly produced an authentic Italian character in Enzo Garibaldi and rather looked the part of a middle-aged Italian lothario although we eventually find out that he is not Italian at all, fooled us. To complete the male line-up was another authentic looking character that of Squadron Leader Roger Allwright played by Sean Botha, he gave us a smart well-spoken representation of a competent RAF pilot.

The first voice we heard was that of Susan Edwards as Nancy Allwright shortly followed by Jo Dorman as Ginny Farquhar, these two ladies held their own in the acting stakes, good clear dialogue well projected, with Jo having to provide an outlandish laugh as a ‘jolly hockey sticks’ land army girl. Such was the strength of the characters that they projected that the twists at the end of the play became something difficult to comprehend. The award for accents and performances of different characters goes to Karen Mackenzie as Blodwyn Morgan, her Welsh accent came across very well and she also coped admirably as she turns into a grumpy Scotsman during the Séance scene, she gave us some entertaining scenes. However, the final accolade goes to Jennie Dighton who only took on the role of Miss Joan Maple (a pastiche of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple) three weeks before the show There was no sign that this was a newly inherited role, she certainly embodied the character and brought this dear little old lady to life, although the twist at the end confused us all with the final denouement.

This was a well performed production, clear dialogue and good projection, good use of props throughout and good positioning on stage, I liked the fireplace being placed on the fourth wall which made the picking up of the poker from that position quite normal. Comic timing was good throughout, lighting was used effectively and the flickering light at the end came into its own. Very sensibly the second half was delayed until the firework display outside the theatre concluded as this would have distracted the audience as well as the cast. Overall congratulations to all.

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