Inspector Drake and the Perfekt Crime

All too often a show that promises to be a rip-roaring comedy will be intermittently amusing at best, or raise an occasional wry smile.  “Inspector Drake” was laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish. No potential source of humour was left unexplored: the word play included puns, misunderstandings, ambiguous sentences and deliberate mispronunciations, while the physical comedy ranged from subtle expressions to full-on slapstick.  Above all, the piece was delivered with relentless energy and commitment by a cast that was clearly determined that the audience was going to have a good time.  I certainly had a good time, but was that just because the piece appealed to my sense of humour?  If so, then I share that sense of humour with just about everyone else who was in the audience.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  “Inspector Drake and the Perfekt Crime” is an unashamed parody of the classic Agatha Christie murder mysteries in which suspects and motives are progressively revealed before the inevitable denouement in the drawing room.  There are certain stock characters that regularly feature in such plays: the brilliant detective, the dastardly bounder, the glamorous femme fatale.  All were gloriously reproduced here, as the director clearly realises that you have to pay homage to an icon before you can send it up.  Thus we had our cerebral detective, working up ever more ingenious theories to explain the accumulating evidence, real and imagined; the arrogant patriarch whose wife has mysteriously disappeared; the poised, seductive daughter who tries to distract the Inspector from his investigations; and the poised, seductive daughter who … oh, hang on, wasn’t that the last character, Sabrina?  So who’s this?

Tremendous care had been taken over getting the look of these characters right, and this sometimes meant borrowing from related stereotypes.  Inspector Drake wore a raincoat that owed more to Morse than it did to Poirot, but we all understood that here was a maverick operator with a gift for solving crimes.  Dr Rupert Short sported the crimson smoking jacket and sock suspenders of the upper class villain, while Sabrina and, er, Miss Short wore vibrant slinky dresses paired with white bolero jackets and topped off with perfect wavy hair and bright red lipstick.  The body language was spot on as well: the restless detective pacing across the room, the darkly suspicious doctor dominating the stage, the glamorous ladies arranging themselves very carefully on the sofa with every crooked finger precisely placed.  These characters were augmented by Sergeant Plod, the honest village bobby with his navy tunic, classic helmet and toothbrush moustache.

Is a taxidermist just another name for a taxi driver?  Do you consider “Kerplunk” to be the ultimate test of logic?  Was Paganini a celebrated escapologist?  If your answer to these questions is “Yes” then “Inspector Drake and the Perfekt Crime” might not be the play for you.  If on the other hand you appreciate the humour implicit in these questions then this comedy whodunnit is just a brilliant evening’s entertainment.  The director and his talented cast delivered a fast-paced, comedic tour de force – far and away the funniest production I have seen in my four years as a NODA Regional Representative.  And I haven’t even mentioned the false shirt front.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.