Murder in Company

A Play / Murder Mystery ‘penned by Philip King and John Boland’. This play is about a dramatic society assembling on stage, in a church hall, to rehearse a mystery thriller under its somewhat dictatorial director Philip Stephens. Events and strains within the company are more than equal to those in the play. Philip's wife is far too friendly with a young man of the company; a prowler is in the neighbourhood and attacks one of the girls; an unpleasant caretaker tries a little blackmail and one of the women seems to know him from the past. The rehearsal proceeds under difficulties until the mysterious death of the caretaker brings the situation of the ‘whodunit’ even more closely into real life. It transpires that almost everyone might, and could, have murdered the dead man.

This was an enjoyable entertaining production from St Michael’s ADS well cast and directed by Ian Field.  I did feel there were a few ‘first night nerves’ especially with ‘NODA’ being present; hence a number of ‘prompts’ were taken, especially in Act One, but overall I did find the play most entertaining!

The play requires a cast of eight vastly different characters... I would suggest that in this production there were no leading ladies and no leading men... just a ‘cast’ of eight determined to give of their best in an attempt to entertain those present and ‘ENTERTAIN THEY DID...what more can one ask! 

The church hall has a new caretaker - ‘Ted Smith’ our ‘murder victim’ played by Darren Robertson (Darren’s first time on stage) – well done sir on a good first role!  (If I may be so bold as to offer one small piece of constructive criticism ...be careful when talking ‘upstage’). Ted has his own ideas on how things should be run which infuriates many; especially our ‘dictatorial director’ ‘Philip Stephens’ played by David Palin.  David’s performance was assured with great stage presence throughout.  Angie Fagan played ‘Stephen’s Oh to friendly wife ’Margaret’...well.  Max Tomlinson showed the many sides of ‘Alan Wilson’s’ character– the romantic, the frustrated and the angry young man really well. His anger explodes when he believes that ‘Ted Smith’ is blackmailing the love of his life Angie!  June Dowd gave a strong, confident portrayal of ‘Phoebe Kershaw’, but what was she hiding from her past about our caretaker!  Ann Wasley played the part of ‘Doris Stewart’ really well. Doris was attacked by ‘The Prowler’ on the way to rehearsal... she thinks that Philip could be responsible and that he maybe ‘the prowler’.  Cheryl Rose-Coulthard (Another first timer) played the part of ‘Patricia Robins’. Cheryl was confident and assured in her first role ... congratulations.  Last but not least and if I was to pick a ‘stand out performer’ it would be Patrick McNulty’s portrayal of ‘Ronnie Meadows’. Patrick was excellent in this role, funny, deep, expressive, with facial expressions aplenty and low and behold our ‘KILLER’...well done!  This well written play had a bit of everything comedy; thoughtful issues and the final reveal - ‘our killer’ was a great surprise to me; I did have ‘Phoebe’ as my killer - although I will admit, I do tend to sit back and enjoy the action opposed to trying to work out ‘whodunit’

The set was minimal but worked well and used all the available space – congratulations to Ian Field and David Palin on their design and constriction and to Julie Clarke (Stage Manager) and the cast for making it all work so smoothly.  Lighting and sound was good and added to the overall atmosphere ... well done Caitriona Muir.

There is little or no doubt that the success of the production was down to all the members of St Michael’s, both on and off stage, coming together and working as a team. Congratulations to everyone concerned for making this an enjoyable evening.

Thank you so much for inviting my wife and I and thank you so much for your welcome and your hospitality throughout; it really is a privilege and a pleasure attending your productions, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

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