Mort

Mort, the play, is based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel of the same name and was adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs. To the uninitiated, Pratchett’s world is a weird and wonderful place, where he mixes the mundane and the fantastical to great comic effect, offering sharp insights into some of the absurdities of the modern world. In this story, Death fancies a night off and sends his new apprentice, Mort, out to do his work for him. Things, of course, go wrong but can he get the help he needs to undo the mistakes and prevent history from being rewritten?

As the curtains drew back we were greeted by a beautifully made set with Death’s study on the extension front stage right, and a succession of well-painted flats occupying the rest of the stage. The huge set design, building and painting team must be commended on what they produced – the stained-glass windows in particular were stunning. Props too were really well made – the spell books and, my favourite, the door knocker, were amazingly good. Lighting (Paul Impey) was very effective, and Wardrobe Mistress Lydia Shepherd and her team excelled themselves with a wonderful array of colourful costumes. I particularly liked the ‘crumpled’ wizards’ hats.

The Grim Reaper – or Death – is such a wonderful character and was beautifully portrayed by Kevin Cordell, who has the perfect height, build and voice for the role. He garnered great sympathy from the audience as he confessed to being bored with his work – a short order chef in a rib bar was what he wanted to be! Raj Khan as the unemployable Mort was a great counterpoint. He gave us just the right degree of timidity and nervousness as he strived to prove his worth. Such an assured actor, I loved his take on being flea ridden - I was itching too by the end of the scene!

Jeremy Fletcher made a great crusty and grumpy old butler, you could feel the age in those old bones as he shuffled off to do his master’s bidding, while Sonia Hill as Death’s daughter Ysabel was a good strong character – her mocking Mort was a great scene. Megan Cranfield gave Princess Keli a lot of spark, courage and outrage at not being dead. Elliot Sergejew was spot-on with his portrayal of the rather unreliable wizard Cutwell. Hats off to Lillian Clark though, for making the most of a small role as the speaking Doorknocker – so characterful and funny!

I felt the script was more suited to a TV adaptation than the stage, with its plethora of short scenes cutting from one to another is easily achieved on film, but hard to give pace to on a small stage. This was a problem with the adaptation, not your production – you did well to achieve a pretty smooth-running show, thanks to the clever set design and the hard work of the cast and stage crew, who changed the scenes speedily and quietly.

Not being too familiar with Discworld and all its characters (my only venture into it was with “Wyrd Sisters” way back in 1997 with this group) I’m afraid I got rather lost in the complications of the plot in act two. Nonetheless it was a good production and, Director Richard Collins, you should count your debut as a director a success. You teased out all the humour in the script, made us think about some of the daftness that exists in modern life and gave us a really enjoyable evening’s entertainment. What more could we ask?

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