The Last Drop ( A Murder Mystery)

Both myself and my guest were intrigued and excited as we arrived at the performance venue. There was a stage with a few chairs and tables, a fireplace and some religious artefacts and paintings, the audience are was all separate tables with table cloths, a drink, some crisps, a name card and a pack with held pens,paper and instructions on how the evening would proceed. The whole effect as we walked in was very professional and welcoming. Before too long the drama started with 6 snow clad people entering through the audience. There were no microphones and there were at least one hundred people in the audience but projection and diction was good from all the cast so every word could be heard very clearly. The actors all stayed perfectly in character while moving through the audience and never once broke the fourth wall - well done. Right from the start the whole cast with their own particular characterisations and character traits were strong and confident, they moved onto the stage via the stairs without fuss , still delivering dialogue, dropping hints and red herrings along the way. We (the audience) lapped it up and were all frantically scribbling anything and everything on our pieces of paper that we felt may be of importance. 

Jon Dawson (Father Brown) very ably controlled everything on the stage and pace and delivery was good, each character firmly established themselves right before the first murder. Nick Lowe (Chester Oldcastle) died quite realistically without lots of gratuitous thrashing about or lashings of blood, I enjoyed the comedic elements from the whole cast as they delivered dialogue in stereo while looking out to the audience for full dramatic effect, they were very obviously enjoying themselves. A supper was served to us all which, I have to say, was a lovely touch and absolutely delicious. The characters that were still alive then circulated the audience tables for us to question each and every one of them. Again, character was never broken no matter what we threw at them. The drama resumed on the stage with lots more clues and red herrings, it was lovely to see the chemistry between them all on stage and there were no weaker links, a couple of prompts had to be thrown but it certainly didn’t detract from the performance.

Stella O’Reilly (Aggie Pike) was an absolute joy to watch. Her performance was just enough, she never overplayed and her dismay about the cake knife was real and felt by us all. Sue Longley (Frankie La Tour) gave us a lovely full bodied performance filled with confidence. Lawrence Shoebridge (Derek Smith) and Catherine Borg-Fenech (Gail Johnson) had some great chemistry and both were confident to convey things with just a look or a shrug instead of always relying on a dialogue delivery. David Gordon (Bert Pike), Patricia Smithies( Edith McAndrew) and David Long ( Harry Ibbotson) also gave us very strong and polished performances, Patricia’s even included a Scottish accent, they all worked well as a team and before too long there was another murder. Once again we the audience questioned the cast and once again nobody cracked. The cast returned to the stage for the big reveal.

No, myself and my guest didn’t work it all out. There were intricacies and red herrings a plenty, but we certainly had a very enjoyable, fun filled evening. Thank you for the wonderful hospitality. I look forward to seeing you all again very soon. You should most definitely give yourselves a very deserved pat on the back  for a job well done .

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