Secondary Cause of Death

Everyone who has ever seen one of Peter Gordon’s ‘Inspector Pratt’ plays will appreciate that the loss of your leading man with one week to go is a pending disaster. Sue Cox in her first production for the Players had this situation to face and felt it was almost a miracle that Richard Bevan agreed to take on the part with only three rehearsals to go. No script on the first night and no prompt to be heard on the second. ‘Well done, Richard’ must be the understatement of the season!!

The characters in this Christie spoof are, as expected, Lady Isadora (Jan Ibberson) and Capt. Henrietta Woolmer-Cardington (Rosie Choppin), both suitably ‘upper crust’, Lily Tuthill (Janet Black) and Count Puchlick (Gary Jarvis), with Bob Calman appearing as both the Colonel and the ‘thespian’ Cardew Longfellow, all three having to portray two different characters with  relevant accents. The glamour was provided by Angela Blackwell as the sexy Nurse and the cast completed by Danni Hibbert who had the misfortune to be the Housekeeper and first corpse. Everyone worked hard to ensure the success of the Murder Mystery organized by Cynthia Maple, a dominant performance by Sue McCormick.

The Library set, with panelled walls and deer’s antlers, was excellent giving a perfect background to this comedy thriller. Well done, the audience enjoyed themselves and the Players did too – after all !!

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