holiday at Home

From the opening of the curtains it was apparent that the set for this delightful comedy/thriller by Colin Barrow had been designed and ‘dressed’ with fine detail in mind with plush furniture, ornaments, a plant, a great standard lamp and a good choice of curtains. Costumes were also very varied but totally appropriate with a great choice of hats. As with Agatha Christie plays Colin had written, with very clever dialogue, to included a fair number of characters – most of whom had motives and opportunity to be the thief and/or the murderer. ‘Red herrings’ and genuine ‘clues’ came thick and fast and by half time most of the audience’s brains could well have been addled with all the permutations. Like most murder plays the pace did ebb and flow to allow the audience to catch up with the clues but the actors seemed generally assured in their roles however there were far too many prompts some of which I suspect were unnecessary. At times all cast members were on stage at the same time yet despite this the small set did not look ‘cluttered’ owing to clever direction. With nine cast members it is impossible to mention everyone and probably unfair as a play is a ‘team’ effort with each character, no matter how large or small their role, adding to the performance. Having said that I must certainly mention Sue Duncan  and Sam Cocozza as Lady Boucher and Scribbins her butler.  They were both excellent in their parts from start to finish but Scene 2 Act 1, when they pretended to be on holiday, was a gem.  Both their characters were very demanding and they played them exceedingly convincingly but the star of this production was Karen Franklin as Lizzie the housekeeper.  She was sublime with an incredible accent, maintained throughout.  Every time she entered the stage she held the audience in the palm of her hand. Her performance was riveting. It is fair to say that each player did indeed add to a good production with excellent sound effects, especially the rain, very quick scene changes and a slightly unexpected ending.

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