Tiptoe through the Tombstones

The switching off of the house lights, the introductory song and an eyrie and menacing laugh plus the few seconds of suspenseful waiting for the curtain to open onto a dark stage all created the right atmosphere for this ‘whodunnit’ play by Norman Robbins, the sequel to ‘Tomb with a View’.  Sometimes sequels work very well but on this occasion I felt that, despite the efforts of the ten strong cast, this was never going to be a great show.  The play began very well with the superbly ‘gay’ Vernon (Simon Vyvyan) and Edna (Karen Franklin) cleaning a house in readiness for the arrival of the Tomb’s relatives to learn the contents of the will in which they all anticipated being recipients.  The relationship worked well between these two very able actors. He full of confidence and she rather frightened. Next on the scene came Zoe (Sandie Smith) and Mortimer Crayle (Vic Moss), the Solicitor and his secretary.  These were both confident in their parts as a crooked pair intending to kill off all the Tombs so that they would inherit the house.  That left five members of the Tomb family and an unexpected guest who arrived having had a car accident on the road and in need of shelter for the night.  The set was cleverly designed with plenty of entrances, cobwebs, dust and old fashioned furniture giving a great feel of general neglect helping to build the atmosphere.  By the end of scene one the first murder had taken place and from then on the bodies piled up in rapid succession leaving the audience wondering who could possibly be responsible. I felt the play would have had more impact if the family members  had varied their speeds entering and moving around the stage as they all came over a little bit ‘samey’ with the exception of Claire Mitchelson  who lit up the stage at every moment.  This was a very difficult play to stage and I felt that FADS made a good effort with a rather poor script.

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