A MURDER HAS BEEN ARRANGED To 21 November.
Hornchurch.
A MURDER HAS BEEN ARRANGED
by Emlyn Williams.
Queen’s Theatre To 21 November 2009.
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 5, 14 Nov 2.30pm.
Audio-described 14 Nov 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 18 Nov.
Runs 2hr One interval.
TICKETS: 01708 443333.
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 November.
Pre-Christmas hokum at Hornchurch.
He created the psychological stage thriller. But this 1930 Emlyn Williams ‘thriller’ is no Night Must Fall. Set on the stage of a shut West End Theatre its plot gets enmeshed in supernatural solicitings (there’s a fair amount of Shakespeare too). But the stage frights are all external bolt-ons, while the murder and its motive are all too clear. The, slightly stronger, final act involves a passing ‘ghost’ and a way of avoiding a frame-up.
Though Williams had a success in his time, the mix of realistic murder motive and supernatural interventions hardly holds tension – or attention – nowadays. And the openness of the Queen’s stage, with director Bob Carlton’s decision to play for broad theatrical effects – thunder-flashes and crashes, significantly sinister expressions from Jane Milligan’s Mrs Wragg - plus Norman Coates’ gothic, grey stage setting, dissipate such mystery as might still be possible from Williams’ creaking vehicle.
There are some compensatory laughs; it’s a matter of individual taste whether that makes things better or not. And the cast play it all heartily. Except, curiously, Simon Jessop as Sir Charles Jasper. He it is who will inherit a cool couple of million (in 1930, mind) so long as he remains alive until 11pm.
If not, we learn - as the action begins at 9pm that very night (bells helpfully toll to remind how the deadline’s approaching) - the money will go to one Maurice Mullins. Someone with an indeterminate name turns up: can he be a disguised Maurice Mullins? Hardly, as Maurice himself soon arrives, admits he’s in for a pile of loot and sees off his rival claimant. If you wonder where the mystery is in that, see the play and carry on wondering.
Perhaps if Jessop had given a stronger will to his lackadaisical Sir Charles there might have seemed more to play for. He may have wanted to suggest someone tired of life and the burden of inheritance, but that’s a deep shade too subtle for this play. Apart from that, the Queens’ cast create the stereotypes efficiently enough. But, on this evidence at least, the play’s a theatrical corpse.
Beatrice, Lady Jasper: Karen Fisher-Pollard.
Jimmy North: Elliot Harper.
Sir Charles Jasper: Simon Jessop.
Mrs ragg: Jane Milligan.
A Woman in Red: Sarah Scowen.
Miss Groze: Lucy Thackeray.
Mrs Arthur: Helen Watson.
Maurice Mullins: Marcus Webb.
Director: Bob Carlton.
Designer: Norman Coates.
Lighting: Chris Howcroft.
Fight director: Nicholas Hall.
Assistant fight director: Rachael Evelyn.
2009-11-03 14:22:43