Secondary Cause of Death

It’s easy to see why Peter Gordon’s trilogy of plays, featuring the totally inept Inspector Pratt are so popular with drama groups.  They have all the ingredients required to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. In this, the second in the series, the Inspector once again finds himself out of his depth as the bodies start piling up.  Outside the snow continues to fall making it impossible for anyone to enter or leave, so who amongst those in the house is the murderer?

Bagshot House is a substantial property inherited by Colonial Craddock and now used as a hotel for discerning guests.  The action takes place in the library which has ‘wood panelling’ on the lower half of the walls, the upper half being filled with ‘books’,  A sofa and two leather armchairs were well positioned, as were the side tables and fireplace, which was complete with coal scuttle and fire irons.  It was obvious a lot of hard work had gone into creating the set which has to allow for a secret door and out of sight props enabling strange happenings behind the sofa. My only criticism is of the two black and cream cushions which I thought seemed a bit out of place.  Possibly more suited to a post war setting.

The year is 1939 and, as we are frequently being reminded by one of the guests, storm clouds are gathering over Europe

Caroline Mackrill gave a strong performance, with excellent projection and diction, as Cynthia Maple, invited by the Colonial to arrange a murder mystery evening. The Colonial and his look-alike, the rather animated American actor Cardew Longfellow were both well played by John Oglesby and Netti Lomas was a very convincing Lady Isadora Pollock.

Henry Woolmer Cardington has a speech impediment which can’t be easy to maintain but I think Jamey Benson did very well in this respect.  Unfortunately he did tend to rush his lines, especially at the beginning, which made it difficult at times to understand what he was saying.

Matt Elliston was Count Puchlik from Poland, keeping up a good accent to the very end.  The exploding cigar sequence was well carried out and the consequential change of wig to one which stood on end, as a result of the explosion, was hilarious.

There were good performances from Jean Schofield as Nurse Parsley and Claire Abrahams as Housekeeper Martha Armstrong, both of whom fell victim to the murderer quite early on, and from Sue Grant as Cook Lily Tuthill whose true identity was not revealed until almost the end.

The star of the show is of course Inspector Pratt, played by Martin Gouldstone.  A very good performance of this blustering and rather idiotic character who appears totally out of his depth when trying to solve one murder, never mind a whole series. He certainly got the audience on side as we laughed our way through the production. 

Of course, none of the guests are who they claim to be, but all is revealed at the end. 

Costumes were, on the whole suitable for the period although I’m not sure the Colonial would have been wearing jeans and did Lady Pollock forget to change out of her brown suede day shoes when wearing her evening gown? Little things maybe but they caught my eye! 

To sum up, this was a well directed production which moved at a good pace and kept us on our toes till the very end.

Thank you Clavering Players for a very enjoyable evening.

 

 

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