Murder by Misadventure

Murder by Misadventure is a murder mystery with some comic touches. Harry and Paul are successful co-writers of crime stories on stage and screen. Harry is precise and calculating; Paul seems to live for the moment but finds himself increasingly resentful of his role as Harry’s ‘ideas man’. Emma is Harry’s (apparently) dutiful wife. Paul has no long-term partner, his latest flame being the mysterious Valerie Knight.

 

After a row, culminating in Harry proposing that they end their relationship, Paul reminds Harry of his part in a fraud at the accountancy firm he worked at before starting his writing career. Harry decides that he must get rid of Paul, adapting a storyline that Paul himself has suggested. Arriving home from 6 weeks in America Harry and Emma look out onto the balcony expecting to find Paul’s body….which is nowhere to be seen…..

 

Just a little contrived and whimsical, this play provided a very good evening’s entertainment for the audience on this opening night. The ooohs and ahhhs as the play reached its denouement and extended applause at curtain call were testament to the way the audience became involved in the plot.

 

Mark Lewin made a good job of expressing Harry’s business-like manner, impatience and cunning. David Toman was a little less confident as Paul but overall he empathised well with his character’s annoyingly louche approach to life. Alice Adams played an increasingly important part as Emma Kent, as her role alters as the plot reveals she is not quite what we expect. Well done!

 

Toni Gower, as Inspector Egan has a tricky part to play - it would be wrong to say exactly why here. Maybe it’s the playwright’s approach to her character (Inspector Truscott-lite?) but I felt that her police officer, supposedly investigating a murder, lacked the gravity one would expect. As it stands she would not have taken in Harry (who, whatever he is, is not a fool) - surely the point of her role.

    

For myself, I felt that the dialogue lacked the required pace, especially for this sort of play. With three prompts this was not a disaster but I am not a supporter of the ‘first night’ explanation - especially with a show which has only three performances.

 

On the whole I thought the set was good, though there are one or two quibbles. I think the sliding doors - the division between the living room and the balcony (so very central to the plot) - needed to be rather more substantial and would have been improved by ‘glazing’ both windows ; it was clear that the front door did not shut properly - and why did Harry (apparently) look, at least a couple of times, for a non-existent curtain cord at the side of the curtain before opening the curtains manually from the centre?

 

Thank you, Brackley Players, for inviting me along to see ‘Murder by Misadventure’ and for your welcome and hospitality on the night.

 

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