Murder at the Rehearsal

This “Who done it?” play is set in a village hall where the local amateur drama group set about rehearsing their latest production but one by one they are murdered. A detective is called in to work out who the murderer is but there are a few plot twists and turns along the way. The fun of this play is that you can find most of the characters relatable if you have spent any time in amateur theatre! The set was a simple rehearsal room filled with props and chairs and the lighting and sound appropriate for the piece. Lee did well keeping the positioning interesting in a play which involved a lot of sitting around.

Lynne Carss portrayed Mary the most vocal member of the drama group who thinks she is better than the rest and should be on the professional stage. Lynne is always solid in her performance and she played the comedy of this straight talking character perfectly with great facial expressions and perfect timing, its a shame her character wasn’t around longer! Jill Hardcastle the Director of this group was played perfectly by Jean Ord. Jean is always a reliable character actress and we certainly picked up that this director was there because nobody else wanted to do it even though she wasn’t really sure how to do it. The company diva Kim Taylor was portrayed by Susan Haswell, she was hilarious delivering caustic remarks with a flamboyant flare and never dropping her character even in the funniest scenes. Grahame Forster gave us the straight laced Andy Kemp a character who didn’t really want to be there and constantly showed his disdain for what was going on with his great facial expressions.   As the camp Rory Jones, Malcolm Quinn flounced around the stage in this very much caricature role. Many of his sharp lines and antics, especially with a sausage, had the audience laughing out loud. Clive Lancaster portrayed the loveable Geoff Brookes and Annette Morris the busy props mistress Jackie Draycroft, great characters both of whom were cut off in their prime! The inevitable caretaker character was played by Alan Oliver who gave the impression he was taking it all in his stride and not at all phased by what was going on around him. The job of looking at the evidence and trying to make sense of the multiple murders was down to Detective Shaw played by Jan Forster. Jan gave the character a stoical and inquisitive presence carefully trying to piece together the evidence and motive with very little help from her unseen police colleague and with a great twist at the end.

Congratulations to Lee and the team for a very entertaining evening’s entertainment which kept many audience members guessing who the murder was right up to the end!

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