Inspector Drake and the Black Widow

The Inspector Drake series of plays by David Tristam portray a set of murder mysteries with a double entendre twist and an element of classic farce. “Inspector Drake and the Black Widow” is no exception as it tells the tale of oil tycoon John Johnson found with a sword in his back and badly disguised as his wife and the twists and turns that led to his demise.

Inspector Drake (Marie Lovell) and Sergeant Plod (Peter Wilson) work together to solve the mystery whilst also avoiding being murdered themselves. Marie and Peter gave good solid performances as these 2 classic characters. Peter had many monologues direct to the audience due to the fact that he was retelling the tale using flashbacks and both performers had a lot of physical comedy to portray; they did this extremely well and didn’t drop a line. The part cast in the programme as “Actress” was taken by Joanne Chard. Joanne played a multitude of characters including the maid, Lady Devonshire, Amy Mallard, Miss Marble, a triplet and a zoo keeper to name a few! Her ability to give each character a different accent and persona as well as executing multiple costume changes was commendable. The three actors worked extremely well together and the pace of the piece never flagged.

The set included French windows and a cleverly designed trick sofa. It was evident that a lot of work had gone in to having props and furniture carefully placed to ensure the jokes were set up, this would have taken a lot of rehearsal to get right. The lighting plot complemented the piece, there were well timed sound effects and even the music choice before the show and at the interval and been well thought out.

Congratulations to the whole team for a very entertaining production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.