Murdered to Death

Writtle Village Hall was bursting at the seams on Friday night with a full house coming to see the extremely funny comedy Murdered to Death by Peter Gordon.  Director Barbara Llewellyn had certainly weaved her magic with this cast as this is probably one of the best drama productions that I have seen at Writtle Cards for a long time.

This play is a hilarious spoof of the well-known Agatha Christie “Miss Marple” murder thriller, where a mysterious country-house murder is solved by an amateur sleuth in the shape of a seemingly dotty, nosy old lady over a period of 24 hours. In this case Miss Maple, who was played by Katherine Thomas, she personified the role with hat, spectacles and of course her knitting, with which to enhance her character.

With the guests assembling to visit Mildred (Tracey Willmott) at her mansion, we get to be introduced to her put on niece Dorothy Foxton, Colonel Charles Craddock and his wife Margaret, Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington, Pierre Marceau, plus the butler Bunting.

All of these characters gave fantastic performances. The clarity of speech was super as was the projection.  Barbara Llewellyn had obviously worked very hard to achieve this as there was not one loose link in the chain, Bravo to all of you.

We first meet rich widow Mildred Bagshot, the owner of the house and her dowdy self-effacing niece Dorothy (Sharon Goodwin), who opens the show. Both had great characterisation and expressions, we heard every word. Sharon always has great facial expressions and makes us realise just how downtrodden she is, as she cares full time for her aunt. Tracey playing Mildred, was suitably irritating as the matriarch of the house.

I loved the Craddock’s with fabulous RP accents. Charles (Jerry Thomas), who loves a drink and a little bit of a fling with Mildred over the years, gave us a blustering bumbling retired army Colonel, who we later find did a desk job during the war in India. His long suffering acerbic wife Margaret was superbly played by Paulette Harris.  This lady has the most expressive face and knows how to use her acting skills to the maximum. I loved the denouement at the end when we find out that she was one of the murderers.

Attractive Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington (Michele Moody) and her partner in crime Pierre Marceau (Andy Grant) were another good double act. First as Elizabeth with her cut glass accent and Pierre as the French art expert, later both switch to East End accents. They did very well in the roles, although a few prompts at once point.  May I suggest that the society think about cutting the show prompt and just have a rehearsal prompt, as sometimes this does put actors off.  Both these actors are very experienced and I’m sure can cover each other but the prompt came in very quickly which I know from experience can be a little offputting.

Bunting (John Wright)  gave us the resentful butler whose first appearance enters with an axe and later continues to get overtly drunk with the Napoleon Brandy as he thinks he is going to be left money in Mildred’s will.  We later find out just who he really is.

Murder is committed and Inspector Pratt and Constable Thomkins arrive to solve the crime. Silas Powell as the put upon young Constable who obviously had far more intelligence than his acting Inspector gave a fine performance. The laurels though go to the superb acting of Martin Warner as the bumbling inept policeman who provided us with most of the comedy. His dialogue would have been extremely hard to learn as it was made up of malapropisms in nearly every sentence. I have watched this young man grow as an actor over the years and can honestly say that he did the role proud. Well done Martin.

The Art Deco set was absolutely beautiful in Terracotta, black and gold with suitable furniture and lighting of the period. There were lovely little touches all over the set which gave us the period straight away. Costumes were stunning and made in the main by Jan Irving. This gave us a gorgeous feel and look to the whole production. 

The Alfred Hitchcock theme music of Charles Gounod’s; Funeral March of a Marionette’ was really apt for this show and a good choice.

Lighting was good with lit fireplace and daylight window. Just a shame that it was not possible to light the hall way.

This was a really excellent choice by Barbara and the amount of very happy audience members cheering the production at the end, showed it certainly was a hit, I was so glad that we were invited to attend.  Congratulations to you all.

 

Christine Davidson

NODA East District 8 Rep

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