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Robert Mountford as Lawrence, the director and Tom Chambers as DCI Morse. Pictures: Johan Persson Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts
Morse was more than a TV detective series, it was an institution and John Thaw not only played him, he embodied him, he was DCI Endeavour Morse, creating a character with all his arrogance, vulnerability, love of classical music and literature . . . and painful loneliness. The final episode - with Morse's death ensuring it really was the last - aired in November 2000. It's a hard act to follow and Tom Chambers does an excellent job given the script doesn't give him a great deal to work with. The play was written by the late Alma Cullen, who wrote four episodes of Morse between 1989 and 1992. We saw the first version when it toured back in 2010 with Colin Baker as a somewhat cantankerous Morse, then it was adapted by Cullen into a Radio 4 drama starring Neil Pearson in 2017. It has taken Morse from TV to stage, to radio and now back to stage with each move adding a new layer of complexity with this world premiere Birmingham Rep production bringing its own cast of ghosts as Morse's past returns to haunt him. We open in Oxford in 1987and a performance of Hamlet with Justin, played by Spin Glancy ending off his To be or not to be speech with the appearance of Rebecca, played by Eliza Teale, as Ophelia, who, as we know, dies in Shakespeare's celebrated tragedy, but not in that particular scene and certainly not for real. It really was a show stopper. As luck would have it DCI Morse is off duty and in the audience, so becomes on duty and takes charge of investigating a . . . let's just say suspicious death at this point. It is a death that opens a can of ghostly worms for Morse, painful memories of another Hamlet back in college in 1968 with Lawrence, the director now, being the director then. Morse had had a minor part in that production, and, let's just say romance was filling the air with its own version of to be or not to be. Robert Mountford's Lawrence is the archetypical baddy, a sadistic student whose had turned antagonising all and sundry, including Morse then and now, into an art form. He was supposedly a brilliant director but with that sadistic cruel streak and air of nastiness along with, apparently, a penchant for seeing women as his own pick and mix harem. Charlotte Randle as Verity and Spin Glancy as Justin Rumours he is going to let go several cast members, to use a sanitised term, when the production moves to the West End has not endeared him to his Thespian charges. Without giving too much away, Lawrence has more enemies than mates, a ratio of thousands to none, so his chances of making it to the curtain call in either play are limited . . . just saying . . . which explains why Mountford also has time to pop up in Act II as Monsignor Paul, the Catholic Priest, who played Hamlet quite brilliantly in the college production but chose to follow theology rather than theatre. Why the change of heart and direction . . . that would be telling. Then there is James Gladdon's Freddy, the Geordie Hunk as he is once referred to. He plays Laertes which give a literary twist to proceedings with his character's familial grief for sister Ophelia in Hamlet mirroring his romantic grief for Rebecca, the actress playing her in real life. Then we had Ellen, played by Teresa Banham, who had stage managed the 1968 production and has returned to Oxford as a Professor of History, and there is history between her and Morse . . . and her and Paul as it turns out, all emerging drip by drip. History lurches into view again with Verity, played by Charlotte Randle, playing Queen Gertrude, and clinging grimly on to her chance to return to the stage after a long break between engagements. She had also been in the 1968 production. And, as always, by Morse's intellectually driven side, we have the more down to earth, pragmatic Sgt Lewis, played by Tachia Newall. Every show needs a producer, so enter Harriet, played by Olivia Onyehara, wife of Lawrence, who has no illusions about his . . . extra curricular hobbies, while in the background drifting around as police, scene of crimes and anyone else we have Josh Katembela. As with a typical Morse case there is a decent choice of suspects and more to it than initially meets the eye with the truth relying more on Morse's analytical brain and inherent intelligence – and a rather turbulent past - rather than steady, traditional police procedure. The problem is that this stage version has not shaken off Morse's TV origins. It might be a new plot rather than TV episode rehash, but it still has the TV/film format, with a succession of short scenes, some only a few words long, making the whole thing bitty and constantly interrupting flow. To be fair the cast manage to change the fluid set with balletic precision wheeling on and off desks, settees, police crime tents, theatre sets, a church . . . all seamlessly, quick and efficiently changing scene after scene, and there are a lot, but it still breaks any chance of a smooth ride. Colin Richmond's set is both deceptively simple and effective, with the Church scene particularly well directed and effectively choreographed. The roll-on coffee vending machine was a nice touch, while Lizzie Powell has done a fine job with the lighting with subtle changes in hue to follow revelations and emotions and some stark highlighting. The cast do an excellent job in telling the story, a plot which perhaps has too many strands to unravel on stage in a couple of hours – TV has the advantage of close-ups and visuals to advance the plot – a picture worth a thousand words springs to mind. Barrington Pheloung theme music is there, voted Britain's favourite TV theme, with its morse code beeps, with Morse's classical music heard in the background. Chambers gives us a younger Morse and less grumpy than Thaw, creating his own character, the brilliant student, with classical education, who became a copper, and it works well, any audience members too young to remember Thaw will appreciate his Morse as a clever, if unconventional detective, while for Morse fans, it is an interesting take, a different Morse with the same intellect, flaws and dedication. Directed by Anthony Banks the ghosts will haunt the Rep to 14-09-25.
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