Prescription for Murder

I have to confess to not only have I never seen Prescription for Murder, I had also never heard of it. The name of Norman Robbins is not usually associated with this type of play, having usually performed as a Panto Dame and associated with Panto Scripts. It was really good to see something new and a thriller with a twist.

As usual the set designed for this piece was superb, the performance venue does not have a stage therefore any performance space has to be specifically designed and made for the play they are performing.

As the play opens, we see Barbara Forth played superbly by Fiona Firth and her friend Dorothy Livingstone, played with ease by Gemma Bourke, doing some spring cleaning at Barbara’s home which she shares with her husband, Dr. Richard Forth played with conviction by John Varlow.

Whilst Barbara and Dorothy are cleaning they have a visitor, Eric Dawson played effortlessly by David Colston, however Eric is not quite the character he originally appears to be. On his first entrance he tells the story of how he was in a relationship with a woman who was engaged to Dr. Forth and believes she might have mysteriously disappeared.

When the Doctor returns home Barbara tells him of her visitor and the suggestion, he had this fiancé he obviously totally disagrees, Barbara already knows he has previously been married but did not know about this other woman.

The Forth’s also have other visitors, namely Allan and Mary Haigh played by Anthony Clifton and Karen Bedford respectively, the couple, especially Mary, is the village “know all” and a bit of a busy body, however she and her husband, Allan never really agree with each other, Mary always having the upper hand. There were some really good moments as these two bounce off each other to portray this typical older married couple.

As the story unravels, we learn Dr. Forth has had a relationship with a local widow, Julia Moore, however this ended when she married a wealthy business man. Jolene Varlow was outstanding as Julia, you could see from the word go she still had feelings for the Doctor and would really like to marry him were it not for Barbara.

Barbara’s health has not been too good since she married Richard and there are inferences suggesting maybe he has been trying to either poison her or at least making her poorly by giving her drugs.

Were it not for the fact that this is a thriller, it could at times appear to be a bit of a farce with characters coming in and out of the Forth’s house, however this is far from being a farce.

Every actor in this piece had some very long passages of script to work through, however each and every one of them managed to get through their respective sections of the script with apparent ease.

I would suspect that all my fellow audience members were of the same opinion as I was that Richard is in fact trying to kill his wife, Barbara in order that he can continue his relationship with Julia, especially when she brings round cakes for Richard and Barbara, ensuring there is a “special” one for Barbara who has some dietary problems. Barbara, however, gives the cakes to Allan and Mary Haigh. Whilst out in the village Mary thinks she has seen Eric Dawson, who has supposedly left the area, whilst looking at Eric, Mary trips and grazes her knees, due to her injuries Allan implies to Barbara she may not be able to attend the charity function. Allan decides to try the lovely cakes which Julia has given to Barbara, however he has a reaction to them resulting in all eyes being on Julia, who maybe has put something extra special in the cake or cakes.

I said at the start of this report, this is a play with a twist and when we arrived at this, I don’t think anyone was prepared for it which is testament to the art of the director, Andy Firth, who decided to take this play on as his first attempt at directing and boy did he make a good job of it.

I am not going to spoil any future performances of this play by revealing the twist as I think it would be good for others to see for themselves how this plays out.

Congratulations to everyone involved on such superb performances, also to the set builders, lighting and effects which all added to the enjoyment.

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