Murder in Play

The idea of a murder taking place during rehearsals for a play is not new and this very funny take on the theme by Simon Brett opens with us watching a rehearsal, although many of us probably didn’t realise it!  Only when the action was interrupted by Boris Smolensky, the ‘director’ of the play being rehearsed, ‘Murder at Priorswell Manor’, did we latch on to what was happening.

The cast of ‘Murder at Priorswell Manor’ are more interested in their own egos than the play and when the ‘directors’ wife is murdered on stage the Murder Mystery aspect of the evening comes into play.  Of course, the plot would be nothing without the odd illicit affair with philandering Boris at the centre of it all.

The performers are all given the opportunity to play both their real characters and their play characters and all of them achieved the change very well with some good diction and timing.  There are some super parts in this play and, once again, the society gave us strong performances right across the board.

The pretty useless ‘director’ leads the way and was well and frantically performed by Dave Hawxwell.  The part of Harrison Bracewell provided some lovely comedic moments for Matt Broderick to get his teeth into which he achieved well.  The entire cast contributed including Mandy Grimston as Boris’s wife Renee, who gets bumped off at the end of the first act, Kay McGuire as Boris’s mistress Ginette, who becomes the prime suspect for the murder (just one of several red herrings), Danny Barr as Tim Fermor (playing the Major in ‘Murder at Priorswell Manor’), Carol Hawxwell as a super Christa d’Amato, who takes the role of the housekeeper in the play, Rachel Lawson as an excellent Sophie Lawton, the maid in the murder play whose real character turns into a super sleuth and the ‘stage manager’, performed by Gemma Kitching.

Perhaps one of the funniest moments came after Boris provided directions to his cast to play things differently.  This could have been an opportunity for the performers to go over the top but they all kept things well within reasonable limits which was a credit to them all.

I thought the play was very well directed with some excellent attention to detail throughout, especially in the section I’ve just mentioned.  I really enjoyed the way use was made not only of a good, workable, set but also parts of the auditorium and the lighting and sound box which is part of Bilton’s friendly little theatre.

All in all this was a very enjoyable production and, whilst the cast might have kept things in check, not many in the audience were able to stop laughing.

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