Hidden Meanings

This was an excellent choice for a cafe style theatre evening.  About 45 minutes in duration and played with good energy the audience was thoroughly entertained from the moment the curtain opened.  

The set depicted a Victorian drawing room, with the traditional green walls, and was elaborately dressed with furnishings and ornaments of that period.  As the curtains opened, in front of a stunning scene of the Reichenbach Falls, a dramatic fight between Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes was reaching its climax.   Moriarty falls to his death,  Sherlock begins to play the violin and Dr Watson settles to reading the newspaper, behaving just as the characters in the stories.  It was therefore quite a shock when Sherlock's wife enters the room in modern dress and calls him Rodney !  

The story is a convoluted one.  Rodney and his friend George enjoy reliving scenes from Sherlock Holmes, with Edna, their housekeeper, enthusiastically playing Mrs Hudson.  Complications ensue when a body turns up.  Who has killed him, perhaps all of them ?  There are an impressive number of twists and turns in this one act play keeping the audience both engrossed and entertained. 

Hidden Meanings requires bold acting with strong characterisation and the balance between too much and too little is so important.   It was in safe hands with this experienced cast and there were some superb performances.  The pace was good as was the diction, even where accents were adopted.  The play was cleverly directed to make the most of a very entertaining script.  

There was much attention to detail.  The costumes were perfect for a period production and made a super contrast with those wearing modern dress. The music was atmospheric, and lighting was good and non-intrusive.  

Hidden Meanings was just two weeks from curtain up when the first lockdown was announced.   Fortunately, the cast has remained the same apart from two of the roles being reversed.   The audience had clearly been eagerly anticipating the return of live theatre in Colyton and the hall was as near to capacity as present circumstances would allow.

This play was previously unknown to me, and it was an absolute gem.  

 

 

 

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