Murdered to Death

The good people at the Royal Court Theatre in Bacup offered up a deliciously hammy slice of fun with their take on this detective spoof. It was also great to see a large and appreciative audience back in the theatre after the lockdown shenanigans of the last few years. The ins and outs of the daft plot need not concern us unduly - the play is a jolly send-up of the Agatha Christie style country house whodunnit - but this was a heartfelt production which came across very well indeed.

A lovely set was presented to the audience at curtain up, which received a round of applause (I thought that kind of carry-on died out at about the same time as Noël Coward’s dressing gown was consigned to the mothballs!) Nice work there from the stage and scenery gang. As is usual in entertainments of this vintage, we are introduced to our cast of would-be murderers and potential victims, spoofed-up to the hilt by our jolly band of players.

The always statuesque Janice Purslow gave a typically polished performance as Mildred, the chatelaine of of Bagshot House and opened the evening in fine style with Stevie Watson as naughty niece, Dorothy, another well drawn character who knew her business. Master of funny business, Gary Haworth, gave us a lugubrious butler in the form of Bunting: as always with Gary, his great strength lies in always performing as if he’d really rather be anywhere else than on stage, caught up in the nonsense around him. Classic Gary!

We’re then introduced to our motley crew of Cluedo characters who pop along, two by two and one at a time to lovely effect. Colonel and Mrs Craddock were brought to life delightfully by Neil Gioia and Rebecca Ashworth - all fuss and bluster and long-suffering wife respectively. 

The mysterious pairing of Josiah Thorp and Jenny-Mae O’Reilly (mysterious French artist and flapper girl par excellance) stomped around the stage with aplomb - with some excellent theatrical accent work when the masks slip later in the show. Playing a ‘character playing a character’ is tricky and both performers carried this off exceptionally (even if Pierre had a rather strange haircut…) Cheeky Miss Maple - that’s right folks, ‘Maple’ - was brought to life in a sparky performance by Gill Richardson. and although I think the character is somewhat sidelined in the script, Gill gave it her all and was a jolly addition to the cast. 

The long arm of the law was more than ably represented by the comically inept Inspector Pratt and his hard done to sidekick, Constable Thomkins. Connal O’Reilly did sterling work as the incompetent Pratt and Lucas Brame as the weary Constable made for a good stage combination. In shows such as this, the script for the police presence demands much from our investigators - the lead inspector is a typically wordy and punishing role - and Connal worked well at expressing Pratt’s malapropisms and general bewilderment at the daft events unfolding around him. Lucas was for the most part a very able and comically level headed riposte to the flailing inspector and the audience loved them both.

As mentioned earlier, the staging looked perfect and suited the theme of the piece very well. I couldn’t really fathom why the waggling gobos kicked in to action halfway through the show (representing the chandeliers perhaps?) but I found them to be a bit distracting. Cheeky Pierre’s never-ending ‘vape’ cigarette became a bit of a distraction too (directors, please - more proper on-stage smoking in future! It’s not illegal, or even slightly immoral…) but it was nice to see a nod in the direction of period authenticity. Costumes were very well considered and also added to the feel of the parody. The recent surge of ‘trousers which are far too long’ in amateur shows continued in certain circumstances (and poor old Constable Thomkins looked particularly drowned in his outfit but it only added to the comic effect, especially the fact that he didn’t take his helmet off…) but other than that, everyone looked simply spiffing! I’ll say it again though: more smoking on stage in future please…

A few gripes… I didn’t care for the rather slow pace of the dialogue (a much snappier pace would have really benefitted the production) and as the show reached its conclusion, a typical moan of mine is that it was obvious that rehearsals had obviously plodded along from page one and then fought to catch up as things went along, leaving the last chunk at the tail end of the show a little wonky. On the aspect of pacing, I thought a lot of Pratt’s amusing dialogue came across as a bit laboured rather than whip-crack funny (this is a show where the audience is always going to be ahead of the comical carryings-on amongst our theatrical friends on stage, as we know what’s coming) so I would have preferred a swifter move through the dialogue to improve the humour. Perhaps too, Lucas got a little bit carried away with himself in Act Two and could have been reined in a bit (that said, it’s a trap I’ve fallen into myself on stage before so I shouldn’t grumble too much!) I also got a bit fed up of quite a few members of the audience getting their phones out and taking pictures/ videos rather than just sitting back and just enjoying some live entertainment. That’s hardly BRCT’s fault though.

Enough griping! I had a high old time enjoying this production and it was lovely to be back at Bacup. The cast worked well as a team and there was great technical support from stage crew, lighting and sound. All the clues were there, the performances across the board gelled together really well and the choice of material was perfect. The work which has been done to rejuvenate the theatre is also impressive and it was also a joy to see so many people back in their seats enjoying live entertainment. 

Keep up the good work!

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