Murder in mind in this tongue-in-cheek thriller
It made a refreshing change to see a murder, mystery I had never seen before when the Colin McIntyre Theatre Company staged Anybody For Murder?
Written by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner, it was very much a tongue-in-cheek look at the thriller genre, reminding me of a bedroom farce, with people running in and out of doors all the time.
Being performed at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, until Saturday, August 28, the action takes place in a converted farmhouse on a remote, tiny Greek island.
The Greek-sounding music echoing round the auditorium before the play began certainly got me and the rest of the audience in the mood for murder.
Then the music launched into Britney Spear’s Toxic, with Patric Kearns dancing about the stage and wriggling his bottom while putting a sleeping drug into the sugar bowl — a perfect start to the production.
Patric always has great comic timing and this was put to good use as his character, Max Harrington, has to talk himself out of many a situation and tell a few lies in the process.
He is planning to kill his wife for her insurance money, but before he finishes her off, he realises she is better off alive than dead as she has come into millions of dollars of inheritance money.
Jo Castleton is wonderful as the lisping, petite, red-headed wife, Janet Harrington, who spends a lot of the time asleep, having been drugged by Max.
Julia Binns makes a very tall, slim, blonde, called Suzy Stevens, and is often seen in very skimpy costumes, including a swimming costume. Suzy has been having an affair with Max and can’t wait to commit the perfect murder.
Jeremy Lloyd Thomas is ideal as the ouzo-swigging thriller writer, Edgar Chambers, who lives next door. He spends all his time walking around in shorts, and sandals with socks. What a crime.
Karen Henson and John Hester work well together as visitors Mary and George Ticklewell who have arrived on the island to tell Janet about the inheritance but there is more to them than meets the eye. George, a lawyer, is most definitely hen-pecked by the domineering Mary.
Directed at a fast pace by Adrian Lloyd-James, there is plenty of slapstick, double entendres and double crossing — all hammed up in the best possible taste — DAB.
