The Perfect Murder
Sutton Arts
****
The Perfect Murder is a recent stage
adaption of best-selling crime novelist Peter James’s whodunit by
award-winning writer Shaun McKenna.
A comic thriller, it drew a full house for the
opening night, reflecting both James’ reputation as a story teller, and
the strong reputation which Sutton Arts rightly enjoys for this type of
production.
Stuart Goodwin directs, one of an unusually
strong stable of directors in the company and he manages the twists and
turns, as well as shocks and laughs, in a suburban noir thriller with a
skilled touch which is certain to keep murder mystery fans happy.
John Islip and his team have done a fine job with
a busy set, which on a relatively small stage, manages to incorporate a
marital bedroom, a prostitute’s bedroom, a kitchen, a lounge, a utility
room with freezer, and enough doors to keep a farce fan content.
The plot is far simpler than the book. Victor and
Joan are unhappily married and are planning to murder each other. Victor
is seeing a Croatian prostitute Kamila whom he plans to run away with.
Joan is having an affair with handyman Don, who has brought back the
spark to her love life. Detective Constable Roy Grace is on hand to
ensure that wrongdoers are caught and punished.
Jayne Lunn, as Joan, is the star of the show, a
drudge in the lounge with her husband, a sexy minx with her lover under
the duvet. Yet her performance would be less effective without the
wonderfully dour Richard Cogzell as Victor opposite her.
His lofty position as IT manager with the
country’s ninth largest manufacturer of egg cartons fails to impress her
now. She fills her day by watching crime dramas, mainly to ascertain the
best way to commit the perfect murder, and by bedding her lover.
Joan’s younger lover, swaggering Don, is always
quick to impress with a bare chest, and a comic line in rhyming slang, a
curious trait for someone who is revealed on stage to come from
Birmingham.
Giles Whorton enjoys himself enormously in the
role, keeping the running gag of his rhyming slang just the right funny
side of tedious. Kate Lowe handles her part as hooker Kamilla well.
Looking sassily convincing in the role, she combines overt sex appeal
with the laboured ennui of a whore, and apparent psychic powers.
The immensely talented Chris Commander makes the
best of the fairly underwritten part of detective.
The sex scenes are racy, but not coarse, the
humour often as black as a moonless night, and it is the comedy which
carries the show. The lesson that all should take is that when acquiring
bin bags to dispose of a murder victim, never economise and settle for
thin value bags.
Mckenna’s adapted dialogue is strong, the plot
development a little clunky, a common issue with book to stage
transfers. But it is the sparkling cast who illuminate the show, their
enthusiasm, vim and brio, easily smoothing over any plot cracks, ably
and confidently led by Stuart Goodwin.
As is common in many murder mysteries, the exact
historical setting for the action is opaque, the dress contemporary.
However, the soundtrack is gloriously eclectic, veering from Take That,
to Sting, and the Sex Pistols, often with considerable comic effect. The
evening flies by and holds the attention from start to finish, the
perfect pick-me-up on a cold January evening for what turns out to be,
inevitably, an imperfect murder. To 03-02-18
Gary Longden
25-01-18
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