Rehearsal for Murder
Theatre Royal
Brighton
Bill Kenwright presents a new production of the 1982 mystery thriller film from the pen of award-winning writing team Levinson and Link, (Murder, She Wrote and Columbo.)
The plot is pure Dynasty; playwright Alex Dennison is left heartbroken when his fiancée and leading lady Monica Welles is found dead from suicide on the opening night of his new play, that she stars in. One year on Alex assembles the same cast and crew in the same theatre, for an apparent reading of his new play. But as the reading begins, it becomes clear that Alex believes that Monica was murdered and he intends to uncover her killer…dum dum dum…..
I’m a bit of a secret fan of Murder She Wrote but I realised quickly while watching this production that I only watch it hung over in my jimjams, hugging a mega pack of monster munch with the curtains half closed and gripping the remote control so I can skip over the tedious bits. Live theatre or even semi-reanimated theatre like this has to be endured without the ruthless off button or the joys of the Monster Munch. Pity. If you are a fan of The Agatha Christie Theatre Company or that kind of daft Jessica Fletcher lets-fill-an-hour-with-cameo’s-and-spluttering-denials plotting then you’ll sit back and wallow in this unsophisticated churned out treat from the ‘pen’ of writing team Levinson and Link.
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a show which took so many potshots at theater producers, directors and critics in it, the last one – vintage film Theatre of Blood ( with a wonderful washed up cast of self parodying actors) was funny, engaging and held the narrative tension to its genuinely surprising end, and it’s a pity the similarities stopped so soon.
Rehearsal for Murder is rather gentle in a lot of ways, and some of the acting is certainly engaging and I enjoyed the retro sequences of back-plot filling in, they were done well and with aplomb, the cast is tight and fun and are obviously enjoying themselves, but the plot is pretty obvious and easy and although the cast act and shout their little hearts out, poor Anita Harris flapped her arms and eyelashes so many times I thought she was going to take off. I found myself fascinated by a toupee and the truly awful supposed Welsh accent from one of the supporting case, it would have been worth sending her down to Cwmfelinfach for the afternoon, just to listen & absorb a South Welsh accent rather than allow her to continue though rehearsals mangling that mouthful of patronising twaddle, I hope to god they’re not touring to Swansea or the actress can do Cockanyee 2.2.
I’m not going to spoil the ending for you, I’ll let the writer do that instead but it’s worth knowing it’s all a huge wet pail of red herrings with not a decent dénouement in sight. My companion who enjoyed the show for unfathomable reasons, one of which was possibly to do with her coming from Hassocks, felt cheated by the out of the blue twist of the ending but her mood was raised with some tittering about the toupee. For some folk that’s a good night out and a delight to watch so many television actors doing their thing on stage, after I ran out of keeping a tally of the clichés and stopped counting how many times leading man Alex Ferns stomped out to the front of the stage and stared us down, unblinking like a demented Hannibal Lector, i let it wash over me. This is a play about a play about a play with actors playing actors playing actors and its deconstructive elements raised a titter every now and again but it failed to produce the substance of mystery and satisfyingly reasonable ending teased out of the fact and reality of the play ‘s content that a good show should provide, however I’m sure it will do very well at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford.
The set was good, and I liked the curtains but overall this was not the best evenings entertainment I’ve had in the wonderfully cosy Theatre Royal.
One for the fans and followers of Murder She Wrote and Colombo.
Runs until Saturday 16
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