Newbury relishes their very own madcap murder mystery
Degrees of Error’s Murder She Didn’t Write has been wowing audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe for over a decade and now as part of its UK wide tour it has arrived at the Corn Exchange and what a treat it was.
This totally improvised murder mystery is unique as every production is only performed once on a resplendent, almost gothic, 1930s country house set.
There was a palpable buzz of excitement as the large audience prepared themselves to help in trying to solve the murder and enthusiastically joined in the fun.
Peter Baker is the detective and our host, sitting in an old fashioned armchair with a picture of Agatha Christie on the wall; a nice touch. But he needs an assistant to help him so Jerkins is chosen from the audience and given a deerstalker hat.
But first we needed a place and so we had at a spin class and our object was a haddock with six fingers. All very funny and it promised to be a hilarious evening.
The company Lizzy Skrzpiec, Rachel Procter-Lane, Stephen Clements, Douglas Walker and Sylvia Bishop are consummate performers. Their improvisation skills are truly impressive and the piano accompaniment just added to the hilarity.
So, we meet the Haddock family. Their 75 year old father is a keen fisherman which is just as well as his wife Betty, she with six fingers, runs the local fish shop. Her daughter, Matilda loves spinning quite literally spinning around and is involved in a pyramid scheme. Lady Clarissa, the principal of the academy, no longer spins in public and George, the handyman suffers from body odour and lost his glands in the First World War.
It's totally madcap buffoonery but one of these characters is going to be killed. Jerkins decides who it will be from a series of cards, and the first act ends with Betty lying murdered on a chaise longue. Gripping stuff!
But who is the murderer? The second act has more twists and turns than a corkscrew and the dénoument is simply riotous.
This production was a thoroughly side splitting laughter overload. Brilliant!
