When a play opens with a group of singing hedges, you
know that the evening ahead is going to lean heavily on the silly side. This is
very much the case with New Old Friends’ Crimes on
New Old Friends have made a name for themselves producing comedy murder-mysteries. Previous shows include Crimes on the Coast and Crimes in Egypt. During the pandemic, they had a hit with the podcast Comedy Whodunits for your Ears, one episode of which provided the starting point for this play.
The aforementioned hedges surround a tennis club, where much of the action in this cosy crime caper takes place. When Lord Knows, the chair of The Whombledun International Invitational Tennis Tournament, dies, his son, Hugh (Emile Clarke), is suspicious. Police officer Cuthbert (Kirsty Cox) isn’t much help. So, when the bodies start to pile up, private investigators Perry (Ben Thornton) and Penny Pink (Katriona Brown) are called in to try to get to the bottom of things.
Lord Knows? Hugh Knows? With character names like
that, you’ve probably already got an the idea of the kind of humour this play
has to offer. Written and directed by Feargus Woods Dunlop, who runs New Old
Friends with Heather Westwell, Crimes on
The cast of four certainly bring a lot of energy to the production. Playing more than twenty parts between them, they make quick-fire costume changes, including dressing up as hedges. You’d think that all these role changes would cause confusion, but the actors manage to keep the characters distinctive, with their exaggerated accents and over the top characterisations.
Sam Archer is credited as being responsible for ‘movement direction’ and physical comedy is a big part of what works in this show. The slow motion tennis matches are good. They are done simply by having one of the hedges move a ball on a stick back and forth between the players. Ball thwacking sound effects can be heard in synch with the hits.
Ben Thornton revives the old fake walking down the stairs visual gag at several points during the play, even signposting it with an announcement that the joke is coming. The audience lap it up. Like other fourth-wall breaking farces, the actors positively encourage audience interaction. Characters react to ‘ooohs’ and ‘awww’s of sympathy which can be heard from the crowd.
Some of the best jokes come from the imaginative use of props and the set. The wooden window frames of the tennis club become a changing room, a bar and even a car. There’s a nice moment when one of the hedges holds up a model Tower of London to suggest that the car is whizzing past famous landmarks.
Something you don’t often find in a murder mystery is songs, especially songs performed by hedges. The musical score here is composed by Guy Hughes. The use of singing in the play is a nice touch. Who doesn’t want to hear four actors, dressed as hedges, harmonising a musical recap of the story so far?
Some of the cringeworthy jokes might not be to everyone’s liking, but New Old Friends seem to know their audience and give them exactly what they want. If it’s an evening of daft humour that you’re looking for, Crimes on Centre Court serves up some ace entertainment and delivers a barrage of comedy volleys.