Murdered to Death
Tuesday 3rd September to Saturday 7th September, 2024
Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne
Review by Tony Flood
Murdered to Death writer Peter Gordon has created in bumbling Inspector Pratt the most incompetent policeman since Jacques Clouseau, immortalised by Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther.
Nicholas Briggs, who was the voice of the Daleks in the Dr Who TV series, captures perfectly Pratt’s blundering inefficiency and repeated misuse of words which had the Devonshire Park audience in fits of laughter on Tuesday’s first night.
Pavan Maru, as Constable Thompkins, is an excellent foil for Briggs, as they provide both verbal and physical comedy. The aptly named Pratt constantly gets Thompkins’ name wrong, shoots him twice and trips over his wounded leg several times.
Two more of Gordon’s dysfunctional characters, blustering Colonel Craddock and Bunting, the sherry-guzzling Butler, are superbly played by Jeremy Lloyd Thomas and David Gilbrook.
This Agatha Christie-style spoof, set in a 1930s manor house, is sprinkled with innuendos, but does not really take off until well into the first act despite the best efforts of director John Goodrum.
The initial scene in which the lady of the house, widow Mildred Bagshot (Susan Earnshaw) and her niece Dorothy Bagshow (Juliette Strobel) wait for their guests to arrive is slow-paced.
And some of the guests, shady French art dealer Pierre Marceau (David Osmond), snooty socialite Elizabeth Hartley Trumpington (Hannah Blaikie) and the Colonel’s fed-up wife Margaret Craddock (Sarah Wynne Kordas) are not given the scope for comedy afforded to Pratt, the forgetful Colonel Craddock and the incompetent butler. Indeed, they are not much more than caricatures.
In contrast, Karen Henson is given the opportunity to project the quirkiness of uninvited local sleuth and busybody Miss Maple, a parody of the iconic Miss Marple, who becomes a suspect because she has been present at murder scenes so often!
The plot revolves around the fact that six of those present have good reasons for wanting Mildred dead. But when she is killed Pratt accuses Dorothy, solely because she stands to inherit Bagshot House.
Inevitably, others become suspects, including Mildred’s secret former lover and two exposed con artists, as Pratt accuses everyone in turn.
All the action takes place in one drawing room, excellently designed by Conal Walsh, with the period costumes by Geoff Gilder further helping to create the ideal atmosphere.
All photographs by Tracey Whitefoot
