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Still dying for a laugh Murdered to Death Lichfield Garrick **** IT is always interesting to see how a play
evolves and progresses during a run. There are some huge fans who see Les Mis or
The Sound of Music a dozen times on a run but for most people
they see a production just once and to them it is like a film or a DVD
recorded on their mind's hard drive. So as far as they are concerned each performance is
going to be exactly the same give or take the rustle of the odd bag of
sweets opened as soon as the lights dim. Does anyone know why that happens by the way? Is it
like Pavlov's dogs? Theatre seat, lights dim, open and unwrap noisiest
sweets you can find. And while we are at it opening sweets remarkably
slowly in a quiet bit doesn't make it any quieter it just lengthens the
irritation for everyone else. But I digress. Norman Pace as Pratt with the soon to be the late Dorothy played by Chloe Newsome Plays change as a run goes on. Actors see new
opportunities and possibilities. Scenes that might have clunked a little
become smooth running with a bit of nudging here and there and as Roland
Oliver said after a performance of Murdered to Death at Lichfield
Garrick: “Audiences change plays.” They help guide and mould a play as it goes along and
Murdered to Death has certainly been moulded as it enters its
final week of a run that has seen it cross crossing the country for most
of the summer. I last saw it at Wolverhampton Grand in July when it
was a highly entertaining production. Now, in its final week, it has
matured. It is still the same mix of murder and farce but is even
funnier with the cast seemingly now wearing their characters like old
favourite clothes, warm and comfortable, and they seem to be
enjoying themselves immensely. Oliver, by the way, is the bumbling, plus-fours, ready
for a snifter retired Colonel Craddock, old boy, who arrives with his
wife Margaret (Sandra Dickinson) at Bagshot House for the weekend along
with Pierre Marccau (Darren Machin) the dodgy French painter and art
dealer - think of a camp Captain Crabtree from ‘Allo ‘Allo and the
equally dodgy Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington (Michelle Hardwick). They are the guests of Mildred (Erin Geraghty) and her
niece Dorothy (Chloe Newsome) who live at Bagshot with their alcoholic
butler Bunting (Victor Spinetti).
When amateur sleuth Miss Joan Maple (Elizabeth
Williams) arrives then we all know murder is not far behind - she really
is the kiss of death. Mildred is the first to go which brings in the law
in the shape of Constable Thompson or Thompkins or whoever (Christopher
Elderwood) and Acting Inspector Pratt (Norman Pace). Pratt by name and nature manages to shoot his
constable in the foot - both feet eventually - and is even in the room
when Dorothy meets her end - and he still gets the wrong people for the
murders. Peter Gordon set out to create an Agatha Christie
spoof, a whodunit with guffaws, and in that he succeeds with the
help of a cast who have now found just about every nuance for laughs and
effect from the script and the excellent set. It is hard to single anyone out in what is a real team
effort with no weak links. Comedian turned actor Norman Pace shows
the timing needed for the idiotic Pratt and you have to applaud the
beautifully balanced bumbling of Victor Spinetti as the half-cut
Bunting. Michelle Hardwick, from Leeds incidentally, and Machin are believable as the villains keeping their accents - two each - going without falter but everywhere you look there is a splendid performance of a production at ease with itself. This is the last week so I would suspect what is
already a funny show may well become even funnier as the run rides off
into the sunset so I would not bank on an early finish on Saturday
night. To 16-10-10.
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