The Old Gaol Company should have great success with this comedy detective story written by David Tristram.
The scene is set in 1923 in a country house with very little on the stage other than a large settee, a portrait hanging on the wall, a table and a couple of chairs. The plot, starting with the discovery of one body, is complicated with a series of unfortunate deaths, secret passages and disappearing corpses. From the programme, there appears to be a cast of nine, but it soon seems that in fact seven of the cast are played by one actress who presumably is Tracy Lanes. She does a superb job with all her characters and her costume changes.
The story is introduced by Sergeant Plod, played by Richard Damerelle, who is on stage for nearly all of the play. This is soon followed by the arrival, in a somewhat unconventional manner, of Inspector Drake (David Spencer). From the first, it is obvious that we are watching a farce with many double-entendres. Plod’s dodgy stick-on moustache adds to the entertainment and some of the asides to the audience (such as “If this wasn’t 1923 I would ask for a calculator”) were particularly well received. With only three actors, the problem of Inspector Drake’s having to interview triplets might seem insurmountable, but, as with the rest of the play, the audience is in on the joke.
The props and costumes were extremely good, as were the sound effects. The pace of the action never flagged and the three actors were almost word perfect. To judge by the spontaneous laughter of the audience, it was clear that everybody at the Unicorn on the first night had a very enjoyable evening. I would recommend a trip to Abingdon to see this production.
The scene is set in 1923 in a country house with very little on the stage other than a large settee, a portrait hanging on the wall, a table and a couple of chairs. The plot, starting with the discovery of one body, is complicated with a series of unfortunate deaths, secret passages and disappearing corpses. From the programme, there appears to be a cast of nine, but it soon seems that in fact seven of the cast are played by one actress who presumably is Tracy Lanes. She does a superb job with all her characters and her costume changes.
The story is introduced by Sergeant Plod, played by Richard Damerelle, who is on stage for nearly all of the play. This is soon followed by the arrival, in a somewhat unconventional manner, of Inspector Drake (David Spencer). From the first, it is obvious that we are watching a farce with many double-entendres. Plod’s dodgy stick-on moustache adds to the entertainment and some of the asides to the audience (such as “If this wasn’t 1923 I would ask for a calculator”) were particularly well received. With only three actors, the problem of Inspector Drake’s having to interview triplets might seem insurmountable, but, as with the rest of the play, the audience is in on the joke.
The props and costumes were extremely good, as were the sound effects. The pace of the action never flagged and the three actors were almost word perfect. To judge by the spontaneous laughter of the audience, it was clear that everybody at the Unicorn on the first night had a very enjoyable evening. I would recommend a trip to Abingdon to see this production.