Cluedo 2
From Tuesday October 29th to Saturday November 2nd, 2024
Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne
Review by Tony Flood
Cluedo 2, a fun-packed spoof whodunnit based on the classic board game, provided plenty of laughs for an appreciative audience at The Devonshire Park Theatre on Tuesday.
The success of their previous stage production Cluedo two years ago prompted BAFTA Award winners Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks to write the sequel Cludeo 2 and they have come up with another winning formula.
A talented cast benefited from the direction of Mark Bell, who directed the original play, and the movement direction of Anna Healey. They interacted superbly and showed excellent split-second timing in slapstick routines involving cut-out doors and windows and the use of the famous board game weapons such as the dagger and candlestick.
The backdrop of a giant Cluedo board and the switching from lounge, library, kitchen etc helped to create the ideal atmosphere.
There were also clever wordplays and English idioms that were repeatedly misunderstood by an American character plus allusions to Strictly Come Dancing, with the TV show’s champion Ellie Leach making her stage debut as Miss Scarlett. She even performed a few steps of an Argentine tango.
But some gags were overdone and there was a danger of the far-fetched storyline slipping into silliness.
The play began on a stormy October evening in 1968 in a country manor house recently bought by fading rock legend Rick Black (Liam Horrigan) and his stuck up unfaithful wife Mrs Peacock (Hannah Boyce). Others assembled in the large manor house were Black’s demanding manager Colonel Mustard (Jason Durr), hapless roadie ‘Professor’ Plum (Edward Howells), interior designer Miss Scarlett, meddling housekeeper Mrs White (Dawn Buckland), Reverend Green (Gabriel Paul) and Wadsworth (Jack Bennett), a frustrated actor who had been hired to play a butler in a gin commercial,
When Black was killed before he could record the commercial his lifeless body was ‘animated’ by members of his entourage with money-making motives, but their plan backfired as other bodies piled up.
Dawn Buckland and Jack Bennett cleverly milked most of the laughs, while Ellie Leach and Hannah Boyce showed great stage presence.
David Farley’s set design and well choreographed scene changes, with the cast carrying furniture and props, added to the fun.
* Cluedo fans will no doubt appreciate that the play coincides with the 75th anniversary of the popular game being first manufactured by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom.
All photos by Alastair Muir
