Murdered To Death

On a cold November evening what you really need is something to warm the cockles of your heart and give you a good laugh, well the Lytton Players latest show ‘Murdered To Death’ certainly delivered on that score.   As a pastiche of an old Agatha Christie murder mystery this could have been corny and a bit cringe worthy,  and in some hands it would have been. Director Allie Neal however, mastered this piece and wrung every  possible comedic moment to the full.

Overall, the cast were energetic and well engaged, I had to feel some sorrow for Miroslava Budin playing Mildred Bagshot who having been shot so early in the piece missed out on the rest of the fun. Her niece, Dorothy Foxton played by Helen Dunlop, played the plain, gentle, often harassed soul with patience and a calmness not required by many others in the cast.

The first weekend visitors to the manor, Margaret and Colonel Charles Craddock played by Wendy Wartnaby and Rob Paice brought the first piece of real fun to the play. Rob particularly portrayed the ex-army man with stories to tell very well, a fine British stiff upper lip character performance. Vocally he was excellent. Wendy was very believable as a more strait laced, put upon ‘old gal’ and backed him up well.   The next visitors to appear were Sharon Stocken as the well to do Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington and Ian Chambers as the supposedly illustrious Frenchman Pierre Marceau. Both displayed good mannerisms of the aristocracy and morphed superbly into their real commoner selves in Act Two.   The final uninvited guest was Joan Maple, Linda Friis, who you all expected to solve this mystery. Her explanation was ridiculous but amusing, her later sexual outburst just shocking!

Mike Payne played the archetypal Butler – Bunting, he skilfully depicted the argumentative, sherry pinching, rather odd and occasionally drunk servant.   So, we come to the police officers tasked with solving the case. The audience’s sympathy was with Celeste Pallant as Constable Thompkins playing the ‘keep calm and carry on’ straight act and trying to keep her inspectors focus on the job in hand, leaving Steven Musk as Inspector Pratt to take all the plaudits.   Steven’s portrayal was excellent. He was gangly, awkward, and consistently got names wrong, he remained in bungling character throughout and brought energy and stupidness to everything he did.

The set was well designed and dressed in plenty of detail to indicate the era of the play, the costumes also suited the piece, the lighting was simple but effective, however on sound I would have liked a much louder gunshot.

The play itself was a whodunnit that was simple to follow, most of the characters had motive and opportunity and there were last gasp twists, turns and love trysts. It was strange, because somehow I didn’t want any of them to be murderers, overall, a great evening’s entertainment.

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