Night Must Fall

Author: Gordon Richardson

Information

Date
26th October 2024
Society
Westovian Theatre Society
Venue
Pier Pavilion South Shields
Type of Production
Play
Director
Joan Tippins

You are assured of three things when visiting Westovians Theatre Group – an excellent set; a warm welcome; and talented actors who make the characters their own.

No more so than on a chilly October evening to see the Phycological Thriller ‘Night Must Fall’ – although I had heard of this piece and had a brief idea of the plot, I had never before seen it.

The aforementioned set depicted and indeed resembled the 1930’s living room of an elderly woman who throughout the play was pushed around the set in a wheelchair even though we discover late on that she is not in fact disabled but playacts her disability in a mixture of garnering sympathy and to have her servants at her beck and call continuously. Thus the set whilst excellent was sparsely furnished to allow wheelchair access (well done to Pauline Gay for authentic furniture and 30’s props).

Whilst a phycological thriller, this was not a who-dun-it as the play started with a prologue of a failed appeal of the murderer being read out by the Lord Chief Justice (Drew Blenkiron) who doubled as the visiting doctor (with authentic Welsh accent and ‘bumbling’ demeanour) who was at the beck and call of Mrs Bramson (Mary Stephinson), an acidic voiced lady who was not liked by staff nor relatives alike. Mary kept this demeanour up throughout only showing her lighter side to one other (more later).
Mrs Branson’s niece, Olivia Grayne (Hannah Daglish) was played in a manner of authentic disapproval by a poor relation that relies on her hated aunt for her livelihood and resents it intensely.

Herbert Laurie (Michael Brimer) was a constant visitor to the house (generally around lunchtime we are told) – Herbert has a ‘thing’ going on with Olivia and has asked her to marry him. The feeling we find out is all one sided as Olivia rejects his proposal citing that he is truly ‘boring’. Michael made the most of his smaller role. From that point on we ascertain that Olivia likes adventure in her relationships.

The two ‘paid’ servants of Mrs Bramson are cook Mrs Terence (Tahnee Bedford) and young house maid Dora Parkoe (Erin Atack). The personalities of each character could not be dissimilar – Mrs Terence gives as good as she gets from her employer and led to some quite amusing one liners. Dora meanwhile is a mousey character easily led and indeed has been led astray and found herself pregnant by  self-assured and slightly creepy ‘Dan’ (played magnificently by Peter Dawson). Both Tahnee and Erin were well cast for their roles and are accomplished actresses.

Mrs Bramson asks to speak to Dora’s lover with the intention of giving him a piece of her undoubtably prickly mind and insists he marries Dora. Instead Dan works his Svengali like demeanour on the elderly woman and quickly becomes confidante, companion and conspirator against the rest of the household.

Olivia easily sees through Dan’s charade and warns anyone that would listen as to his ill formed intentions.

Enter Inspector Belsize of Scotland Yard (Bill Innes) notifying a body of a missing woman decapitated in found in the garden of Mrs Bramson that was a guest at the hotel that Dan worked at with Mrs Bramson reveling in her instant ‘fame’ and photos in the national press. Bill played the role of police inspector with a calm demeanour with a steely determination.

Toward the end of the play the strangling of Mrs Bramson by Dan for her money and the almost admiration by Olivia, who also has fallen for the ‘adventure’ of Dan was shocking before Peter playing Dan gave a master class in the mental frailty of a psychopath and was eventually arrested by the inspector.

All in all this was a good play with some seriously impressive acting, and it was well apparent that each actor had taken the times to mould their characterisations. As ever it was an evening well spent with one of the North East’s premier drama practitioners.

Well done Director Joan into her first foray into directing. I look forward to your 2025 season.

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