Desperate Characters Go To Any Lengths
It can be difficult for comedy thrillers to strike the right balance between mayhem and tension, and I found Murder at Midnight stronger on suspense than humour.
Playwright Torben Betts, who previously wrote the thriller Murder in the Dark, has provided a follow-up which satirises cockney gangster culture.
He says he was aiming for something very dark and, hopefully, quite comic, but we have to wait until the second act for a few big laughs and real thrills – including some dead bodies in a gruesome ending.
Murder at Midnight is produced by the award-winning Original Theatre (Birdsong, Murder in the Dark, The Mirror Crack’d), and has a talented cast including Jason Durr (Heartbeat, Casualty), Susie Blake (Victoria Wood’s as Seen on TV, Coronation Street), Max Bowden (Ben Mitchell in EastEnders) and Katie McGlynn (Waterloo Road, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks).
They play a collection of weird characters who become so desperate that they will go to any lengths.
There’s Jonny, a one-eyed drug baron; his thug of a right-hand man; Jonny’s dumb blonde girlfriend; his dotty mother and her jittery carer. Oh, and Betts also comes up with an undercover cop dressed as a priest, and a nervous burglar wearing a clown’s mask.
The story begins with the aftermath of a killing on New Year’s Eve. Police descend on Jonny’s posh Kent home before the scene rewinds several hours to show how the chaos began.
Jonny mixes violence with his devotion to Robbie Williams and his dogs. He and his eccentric mother Shirley are brilliantly played by Jason Durr and Susie Blake, who delivers some sharp lines to great effect, as does Katie McGlynn, ideally cast in the role of Jonny’s unfaithful girlfriend Lisa.
Peter Moreton, as the monster’s aptly-named vulnerable enforcer Trainwreck, also provides a great foil for him.
It’s a pity Max Bowden’s character Paul (using the undercover name Ben) is not given the chance to fully show how inept a policeman he can be.
Likewise, the script doesn’t allow Callum Balmforth, as the burglar Russell, and Iryna Poplavska, playing Romanian carer Cristina, sufficient scope. That said, these actors, together with Bella Farr and Andy McLeod, as police officers, all offer excellent support in building up tension with the aid of a gun, a knife, a crossbow and a bloody cleaver!
The play benefits from the slick direction of Philip Franks and the clever designs of Colin Falconer, whose superb triple-level set enables action to take place simultaneously in different rooms.
Murder at Midnight runs at:
Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne
until Friday, 31st October 2025
