'Boeing, Boeing, Gone!' Review
Murder mystery fans should snap up a chance to solve Guildford Shakespeare Company’s new whodunnit on a real jumbo jet, says Richard Davies. On until 16 December at Dunsfield Aerodrome, Surrey.
Our verdict
If you’re a fan of murder mystery, the Guildford Shakespeare Company’s (GSC) Boeing, Boeing, Gone is a special fun treat this Christmas.
Not only do you get to board a real jumbo jet in a working aerodrome, you are also transported back to 1979: Rod Stewart is top of the album charts, Antiques Roadshow is in its first series and Mrs Thatcher has become Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. Happy days you might think, but then again, maybe not?
On arrival, audience members receive a colour-coded boarding pass to determine which order you get to hear the cast members’ stories, or should I say alibis, since each is a suspect in a shocking (fictional) murder that has caused this Ariel Airways flight to Tenerife to be grounded. Yep, you guessed it, no one leaves the plane until the killer is detected!
And so to the cast, or rather, the suspects: Rosalind Blessed plays Paulina, a modern day wife of Bath, whose fourth husband is the Captain. Like her more famous father, Blessed has huge aisle presence and is great fun to be around as she complains about being ‘stuck in steerage’ when really she should be in First.
Skye Hallam plays Juliet Bravo, an ambitious air stewardess who has grown tired of pushing a drinks trolley and now wants to get her hands on the throttle. I especially enjoyed her pre-flight message in which she cautions passengers against using vapes and e-cigarettes, ‘whatever they are’. Hallam is quick-witted and particularly excels at improvised audience banter.
Completing the line up, Noel White, who recently appeared in the movie of ‘Death on the Nile’, plays co-pilot Mike Oscar, a debonair though underachieving ex-RAF man, while Daniel Burke plays Ferdinand, a new age hippy with a ‘big gong to clear out your chakra channels’ who is off to see his Mum for Christmas.
How this production came about is a story in itself. Producer Sarah Gobran recently gave a talk to Guildford Philanthropy and received an unusual offer of a Boeing 747 for a three week show. Having presumably ruled out a theatre version of ‘Snakes on a Plane’, the enterprising team at GSC commissioned writer, Eleanor Murton to create a brand new murder mystery.
Now for my own modest confession, murder mystery is not really my thing (I’m still feeling a bit scarred from 90s dinner parties), but I have to admit that this production takes the genre to another level. The audience certainly took it incredibly seriously, ranging from one chap who’d clearly been ‘watching the detectives’ as he fired off disarmingly penetrating questions, to a little lad with a notebook who only needed a deerstalker to be a perfect Little Sherlock.
My only gripe is that Dunsfield aerodrome is not the easiest place to find on a wet winter’s night. My SatNav took me inevitably to the wrong entrance gate (Stovolds Hill is the right one) and I was fortunate to be rescued by a friendly coach driver who invited me to follow his tail lights. Navigating the airfield’s potholes is also quite an ordeal in the dark when you’re dashing to catch a plane and late arrivals are definitely not admitted. However, nothing quite beats the thrill of boarding an original Boeing 747 and climbing that spiral staircase to the upper deck – definitely a first for me!
The whole evening is a wonderful jolly jape and a perfect celebration of ‘Britishness’. It would in fact be a perfect opportunity to both delight and perplex any visiting guests from abroad this Christmas. The GSC team should be applauded for creating such an ambitious and truly unique production.
