Prepare to laugh until it hurts

A scene from Murdered to Death. Photo / Ken Morrison

REVIEW

What: Murdered to Death

Where: Theatre HB

When: April 13 to 22, 7.30 pm

Tickets at iTicket.co.nz

Reviewed by: Keith Russell

“Do you take me for a fool?” demands our intrepid crime-solving policeman.

There is only one possible answer and the only way you can get it is by attending Theatre HB’s first production of the year where all will be confirmed.

Written by English playwright Peter Gordon as part of the Inspector Pratt trilogy, director Stephanie Drew has to deal with a spoof action comedy set in the Agatha Christie style of “whodunits”.

Drew does well to counter the static comedy at the beginning of each scene by keeping this production lively and moving at pace.

Set in the lounge of a country house during the 1930s the audience is introduced to a gathering of dysfunctional people, assembled to meet the widowed Mildred, well-played by Verona Nicholson, who with her early death robbed us of a smouldering femme fatale.

Her sole heir Dorothy is played with the right amount of “put upon” by Carol Williams, while Luke Glover worked hard to give believability to the long-suffering Constable Thomkins.

The arrival of the neighbour, who in a nod to the genre goes under the name of Miss Maple, was played with confidence by Ann Fulford and befitting her character she came dressed in a sensible outfit and most importantly sensible shoes.

Sylvia Duncan as the glamorous Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington and Jack Garvey as a self-styled French art dealer Pierre Marceau gave strong performances.

Both were hiding something but sadly not their terrible accents that just screamed “we are not who we say we are”.

A retired colonel was played by Chris Chambers who gave a good performance as a walking cliché but Charlene Whyte as his wife gave the performance of her career. Balancing the right amount of sarcasm and offsetting with aggressive moods, she lived her character’s many secrets.

While the plot might be serious it is the characters that deliver the humour and there were two excellent performances. Gautam Paul as Bunting, the insolent and inebriate butler whose past was full of intrigue and Jesse Smith who stood out as the bumbling Inspector Pratt. He relished all his malapropism-rich dialogue, delivered his lines with excellent comic timing and was expressive around the stage

The set was a credit to the construction team with appropriate lighting to enhance the 1930′s costumes. Sound was to a high standard, all marks were kept and the actors achieved reasonably clear diction and projection into the theatre.

In this production, we are fortunate to have a director who revels in the playwright’s words and brings her passion to her cast. There may be a murderer on the loose, but the real danger to the audience will be in laughing oneself to “death”, or at least until it hurts.