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Jason Durr as Jonny Cyclops. Pictures: Pamela Raith Murder at Midnight Derby Theatre ***** It is September , the children are back at school, temperatures are falling and Derby Theatre has a scorching world premier tour from leading contemporary playwright Torben Betts to open the autumn season. A strong cast of television stalwarts includes Jason Durr (Heartbeat, Casualty) as Jonny The Cyclops, Susie Blake (Coronation Street) as Shirley, Max Bowden, (Ben Mitchell in EastEnders) as Paul , and Katie McGlynn (Waterloo Road, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks) as Lisa . Performed by the Original theatre company, Murder at Midnight is a cross-genre piece incorporating, crime, comedy, thriller, murder mystery and madcap farce set on New Year’s Eve in a quiet corner of Kent. There is a killer on the loose. Within are gangster Jonny The Cyclops, his glamorous girlfriend Lisa , his emotionally volatile sidekick Trainwreck, his clairvoyant mum—who’s seeing things - her very skittish foreign born carer, plus an undercover detective, - and a burglar dressed as a clown. That is quite some New Years Eve gathering. A safe full of cash and drugs, a stash of deadly weapons, and one unsolved murder spice the evening up. One house. Seven suspects and a Murder at Midnight… Philip Franks’ direction is pacy, brisk and energetic. The two hour long halves never outstay their welcome. A split-level single set (by Colin Falconer, lighting by Jason Taylor) incorporating an open plan lounge/kitchen, study, bedroom and back alley works well, Sound by Max Pappenheim majors on Jonny’s favourite artist Robbie Williams and mercifully eschews Coldplay, the latter of whom are the butt of a very funny series of running gags. After the success of Invincible, Caroline’s Kitchen, and Murder in the Dark this is Betts’s fourth play at Derby. It is also his best. It borrows from Jacobean revenge drama in the mould of Webster or Middleton. Director Franks has described it as Feydeau meets Tarantino which is particularly apposite for a modern audience. The dialogue is snappy . The one -liners are whiplash fast and laugh out loud funny. I dare you to wear a Coldplay T-shirt to the show. The body count is high, the stage drenched in blood for the brilliant finale. It isn’t just people who meet their maker- Rock DJ tragically is despatched to the great kennels in the sky too, where hopefully he will be better fed. The principal cast are terrific. Betts has created a classic villain in Cyclops for Jason Durr to inhabit. Lisa, his girlfriend, sassily played by McGlynn is much more than a dumb blonde. Susie Blake plays the psychotic mother with a wicked gleam in her eye, sometime demotic villainess in a winceyette nightie, sometime forgetful granny. Betts is a master at teasing with the motivations for his character’s actions, sometimes we find out, sometimes we don’t. He never seeks to explain why some people like Coldplay Cast also includes Callum Balmforth, Peter Moreton, Iryna Poplavska, Bella Farr and Andy McLeod. Murder at Midnight plays until Sat 13th before continuing on nationwide tour at Birmingham, Cheltenham, Guildford, Malvern, Southend, York, Eastbourne, Cardiff, Fareham, and Bromley and in 2026 Salford, Blackpool, Ipswich, Northampton, New Brighton, Coventry, Salisbury, Bath and Darlington, with further dates to be announced. Gary Longden 09-09-25 |
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