Last Christmas

There are two things that I love with drama, a good old Who Done It and original pieces of work so to have the two combined with Allerton Players latest offering Last Christmas was a double whammy of entertainment for me. Written for the Society by their member Deborah Hugill Last Christmas told the tale of the Haunted Fortune Cottage, an annual dwelling for 4 Ghostly characters forced to return to their final resting place each year and this year their home, now an Air BnB played hosts to 4 new guests who soon become embroiled in their own murderous tale.

The play was very cleverly written with just one setting, the living room taking on all the action and with Act One split into 4 scenes (all different times of the day) and the whole of Act Two 1 big scene of unravelling the play was allowed to move along at a great pace.The opening scene acted as the intro to all of our characters, 1st our ghosts and then our new inhabitants of this cursed cottage. 

The 4 ghostly characters were all so individual and full of life (ironic I know), each of them still clinging on to their past but all giving us great characterisations throughout. Paul Staines as Cosmos was still trapped in his lovely Hippie past, often zoning out and in constant Yoga poses or trances. His tragic overdose almost 40yrs ago a great hint to his wild past. I loved his physical portrayal of the character and even his voice had a slow and slightly spaced out approach to it. Deborah Hugill played the lovely twee and slightly bonkers Irene, permanently fussing over the cleanliness of the cottage and even more obsessed with the sound of music. Her wild static hair a reminder of her tragic Xmas tree lights electrocution. The scene between her and Cosmos where he accidentally hypnotised her was one of the scenes of the play as she waltzed around the cottage permanently bursting into famous Julie Andrews numbers from the classic musical. Richard Broadley as Derek brought so much warmth and joy to the scenes, amazing as a dead man who died from a heart attack from over-indulgence at the Christmas Table. His love for the festive feasts clearly had not passed and his beaming smile and chasing the many meals from kitchen to dining room brought so much energy to the scenes.

Katie Bowie was perhaps the most central ghostly character playing Carol, the only one unsure of how she passed yet convinced she was murdered and still determined to uncover the truth 40yrs later. She managed to combine an elegant pasty figure with mad and eccentric behaviour throughout. 

The interaction between the 4 of them brought so much humour to the scenes and what was really impressive is how these 4 and our living (for now) guests were all present on stage despite our ghosts being completely out of sight. The direction and acting was perfect and not one member of the cast flinched despite the massive amount of distractions and physical gags taking place around them.

Now when you thought our ghostly figures had a shady side to them, the living guests of the cottage all had a much shadier story untangling before us. Playing our married couple were Steve Charlton as Tim, a somber, miserable and very anti-christmas character sulking around the place. A complete contrast to his bundle of joy, the full of life Samantha played brilliantly by Alison Parker. Her energy was contagious as she tried to make the weekend one to remember as she invited two guests along, her friend Lisa (Kate Staines) and one of her husband’s employees and old friends Simon (Andrew Hugill). 

Openly trying to act as matchmaker between them, the real truth would soon unravel. Kate Staines had a lovely charm about her, whether slagging off her cheating ex or over playing her excitement for the weekend - she gave the character her all. Andrew Hugill played his character with a real mysterious side to it, tied up in lots of mystery and bitterness towards his boss Tim. These 4 characters would soon become the main focus of the Who Done It.

As our ghosts decided to try and re-enact the Christmas in which Carol was murdered to trigger a memory, the real murder was taking place right in front of them with the killing of Tim. The timing of this at the End of Act One was perfectly placed and led to an absolute rollercoaster of mayhem in a very lively and funny Act Two.

With Tim returning as a brilliantly grumpy and rightly angry ghost everything started to fall into place. His wife’s affair with Simon clearly making them suspects, a brilliant hypnosis finally revealing the truth behind Carol’s murder and ultimately the revelation of Lisa (the quiet character) as the true killer.

The play, quite brilliantly written by Deborah and directed with real care and attention to detail by Christine Trenholm not only gave us every element of a murder mystery that we would look for; suspicion, twists and turns and a great sub-plot. The ghostly side featured so much detail with hidden written messages, ghosts enjoying playing pranks knowing they can’t be seen and doing whatever they wanted in front of the living and wonderful costumes and make-up proving a deathly detail without making it too comical. What I loved was the extra elements that tied into the Christmas theme, the Charades, overcooking of the Turkey, tasteless Christmas jumpers.. This play really did give us everything.

Add in 8 characters who not only bought into the concept and play but delivered their own individual characters with such style and oomph and this was one hell of an entertaining play.

When I read that Deborah wasn’t directing her own play I was a little bit shocked, must be the control side of me, but she made the right call by trusting her baby with the very capable hands of Christine. Not only was the character positioning and movement excellent with 8 characters often on stage, interacting with each other yet no blocking to be seen but the scenes detail was incredibly strong backed up by a great technical team with lighting and sound effects perfectly adding to the mystery.

A huge thank you to everyone involved for a wonderful evening, yet again delivering a strong and very slick to your very appreciative audience. The fun I had just witnessed even made up for being Whammed! In November. I can’t wait to join you again soon for your next production.

 

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