Murder Weapon

Brian Clemens’ wonderful “Murder Weapon” is a cleverly constructed murder mystery over six scenes with some telling flashbacks mixed in. While the clues are evenly spread throughout, I think it is possible to guess the reality early on but the twists and turns in the revelations still keep you second guessing yourself in “did he /didn’t he” do it moments that keep undermining your belief that you know. It makes for a very enjoyable evening’s entertainment. A cross between “Tales of the Unexpected”, “Midsomer murders” with Lonely from TV’s “Callan” thrown in and devoid of the police procedure that dominates recent TV detective mysteries

Central to its success is the performance of the actor as the “he” in that question, Charley Mirren, caught with the gun in his hand at the start of the play and Quince Players have a very good versatile performer who captures the mental battle between grief, guilt and confusion dramatically and reinforces the doubt in your mind and in the minds of the two detectives.

The staging overcomes the limitations of budget and space with a simple black tabs box set and elegant furnishings which cleverly double up as the Dysart Hall home of Diane and the surgery of the Psychiatrist, Hugo. Lighting changes simply signal the flashbacks and some effective sound effects help set the time of day. The effect is that together they create good settings for the investigations in a thoroughly good production, and it was refreshing to see a NODA group tackle a very well-constructed play with some good comic touches, enough mystery to keeping the audience guessing to the end and very well acted by the principal characters. A very enjoyable and entertaining evening.

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