This Murder Was Staged

A play within a play seems to be a popular choice this year, but they are always great fun, and this one was no exception, with a dark humorous script and lots for the audience to work out, and even being involved in, as the plot is cleverly written during a live performance, with flashbacks to earlier events to keep the audience guessing who is responsible for the murder of arrogant and self-centred Director Sinclair Hemmings.   

The sets at Old Buckenham are always good, this one featuring a beautiful chaise longue centre stage, with entrance and exits doors both sides, and a further door downstage right to a closet where the victim is discovered. A nice window to a brightly lit outdoor scene, and some further good furnishings and props, with excellent lighting finished off another particularly good design from Chris Morter.

Matt Warren, making his debut directing for the Players, had assembled a cast of 14, with numerous members playing multiple parts. The fast moving and regular flashbacks had been skilfully set, and transitions from one to the other and back to the present were slick.

When Laurence Barnett fell out of the closet very early on, as Sinclair Hemmings, I thought it was to be a very small appearance-however, as the flashbacks showing everyone’s hatred and reasons for wanting to murder him started appearing, Laurence played Hemmings very well, the arrogance giving all the rest of the cast as suspects plenty to play off.  

As the planted “Detective Drake,” Liz Taylor had a lot of script to tackle, going from one suspect to the other, and did a sterling job keeping things under control with all the craziness going on.

Kat Leitch was also excellent as the sarcastic and put upon stage manager Trudy.

Maris McCann’s strengths and versatility as an actress was on full display, as she took on Keira and 4 other characters with apparent ease. Nervous script writer Jason was well done by Adrian Kidd. In what felt like a deliberate commentary by the authors on the often absurd and loosely connected ideas seen in the theatre world, Adrian also appeared as Linus from Charlie Brown, with Fred Nash playing Charlie Brown. It was a random inclusion, but it effectively got the point across. By weaving in something so unexpected, it highlighted how some creative choices simply don’t land, cleverly tying this into the wider frustration and criticism surrounding Sinclair Hemmings’ increasingly questionable ideas.

Margaret White was hilarious as the highly opinionated and stuck in the past Ms Flugelbert, with a touch of Lady Bracknell in there.

Julie Brown as Taylor, Josh Francis as Thornton, Joanie Hocking as Ms Cranston, Fhi Short as Suzanne, Fred Nash as Harold, Pam Nash as Sylvia, Stephen Short as Mark, and Aydan Taylor Ellis as Carl, plus doubling up other characters, made up the supporting cast.

The whole cast worked very well as a team to deliver the quickly changing scenarios and it could easily have lost its flow if this had not been directed and managed so well.

My congratulations to Director Matt Warren and thanks to all at Old Buckenham Players for another enjoyable evening.

 

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