3 STARS. Jackie Bryans enjoys a light hearted evening of farce at the Theatre Royal. Dong Ding Murder Me on High is showing until Feb 25.
Sean Dillow
Dong Ding Murder Me On High.Production Photographs.Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke.Photograph By: Sean Dillow.www.TheBigCheesePhotography.co.uk
Peter Gordon’s prequel to his Inspector Pratt trilogy is currently being premiered by Talking Scarlet productions. For those who are new to this series, the play is designed as a spoof of the Agatha Christie genre. Inspector Pratt is aptly named, as the character is that off a blundering idiot whose speech is derived almost entirely of malapropisms, with the occasional double entendre thrown in for good measure: one has to marvel at how David Callister, who plays Pratt, has mastered the script given the volume of word play involved.
The play is set on Christmas Eve and takes place in the drawing room of Sir Walton Gates’ country home. His estranged brother Archie (Mark Little) has returned from Australia for the festivities and Sir Walton’s daughter, Emma (Carly Day) arrives with her dashing friend James Washington (Windsor’s Oliver Mellor) as her house guest. We learn that the family had been supposed to visit Archie in Australia the previous year, but following the untimely death of the first Lady Gates (Emma’s mother) and the subsequent injury Sir Walton sustained during a mysterious attack by an intruder, these travel plans had been curtailed.
It soon becomes evident that Washington has previously been romantically involved with Emma’s new stepmother, Lady Gates (Anna Brecon), and that this is perhaps the real reason for his visit.
Sean Dillow
Meanwhile Sir Walton’s long suffering PA, Morag McKay (Natasha Gray), continues to run his life whilst putting up with the derision that is heaped upon her by the new lady of the house.
To this convivial setting Pratt arrives ostensibly to raise money for the Police Benevolent Fund by offering to entertain the group with his bumbling magic show, happily he is assisted in this by PC Potter (Polly Smith) who displays slightly more wit than her Sergeant.
Amateur sleuths anticipating the challenge of a complex plot as they grapple to unravel the mysteries of this ‘whodunit’ will be disappointed as first and foremost this intended to be a farce. As such it achieves what it sets out to do; the audience in Windsor laughed throughout and at the end of a long working day the pace kept everyone engaged and entertained.
It is easy to become snobbish about the theatre and it saddens me that local theatres do not attract full houses every evening; I think this is in part due to some people feeling intimated and fearing that all plays will prove to be heavy going and possibly difficult to follow in terms of complex plots or language. Whilst I am personally not the biggest fan of this specific type of genre, it does represent a light hearted evening out. For those who enjoy sitcoms or relish ladles of spoonerisms this should be the perfect antidote to ward off any lingering winter blues.
- The play runs at the Theatre Royal Windsor until Saturday (25 February) before moving on to Swansea and Litchfield next month. Tickets start from £15 and are still available for the remaining performance this week.
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