The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery

Sitting at the computer, one does wonder where to start when reviewing a play where lines were dropped, scenery fell apart, and ultimately everything that could have gone wrong – did!

Thankfully, all these theatrical faux pas were part of the act in Whitehaven Theatre Group’s production of The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery – a farce that’s been on the amateur circuit for years, but would be more recognisable to today’s audiences as The Play That Goes Wrong.

A well-executed farce is very difficult to pull off and whilst I don’t think the actual play itself will ever be counted as one of the country’s greatest farces, I have to say Whitehaven Theatre Group put on an absolutely brilliant production at The Rosehill Theatre.

Upon entry to the auditorium, the open stage revealed a very well-constructed country house box set – built under the supervision of Beth Lawrence.  Real detail had gone into the design and carpeting the stage floor was a nice touch. It was a very prop heavy show and the stage team must be congratulated for what I imagine was a very long reset after each performance!

It was a small cast, of only five players and in all honesty I don’t have enough superlatives to give each of them.  As an ensemble, they worked as one.  Never trying to one up each other or steal another cast members laugh – they performed as one from the minute the show started until the final curtain. The script was clearly deep in their bodies enabling them to manoeuvre their way around the clunky script with ease to making sure that it was “so bad, it was good”! 

Chatting to the team afterwards I was gobsmacked to learn that some of the cast had never performed in a play before – had it not been mentioned in the programme I wouldn’t be able to begin to work out the first timers, as there was polished performances throughout.

Vanessa Turpin - where to start?  The script requires a LOT of cast doubling – and this is a murder mystery after all, so naturally the murders came thick and fast.  She played Mrs Reece, a sort of Hyacinth Bucket / Gladys Pugh hybrid who then in the play within the play goes on to play a French maid, an LA impresario, a solicitor – the list goes on.   Vanessa delivered a totally knockout performance.  Her badinage with the audience was particularly impressive with some hilarious improv thrown in for good measure. I was in awe from her first appearance and how easy she made it look - particularly after she was murdered not once, but four times!!

It's hard to believe that this was Louisa Morton’s first performance in a play.  Her facial expressions were top notch and one particular bit of business with a telephone and a standard lamp had me in stiches!

Shaun Donald and Hannah Dorney gave admirable performances, not forgetting Jodie Morgan.  All of them played a plethora of characters and brought great individuality to each of them.

Maria Morton did a great job at keeping the action zipping along nicely, although I did feel a slight lull in the middle of the play could have been helped along by streamlining some of the more repetitious gags within the text.  I’m a firm believer that once you’ve got your laugh move on to the next - I did feel there was one or two moments where the metaphorical ‘milking stool’ could have been put away a fraction earlier!

Sound and Lighting were good, and the actors dialogue was crystal clear. The audience on the night I attended were lapping it up and I could tell were desperate to applaud in the blackout between scenes- perhaps a few bars of scene change music would have broken that tension and reset us for what we were about to see next?

On the whole, I absolutely loved this production and had a great night at Rosehill – I smiled all the way back on my six hour drive home .  A huge thank you to Whitehaven Theatre Group for their hospitality (and the backstage tour!) – I’m already looking forward to the next one!

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