Archives - July 2005

OUT OF SIGHT...OUT OF MURDER
by Fred Carmichael

Produced by Mary Frost

THE PLAY

Comedy thriller, set in a remote house, recently. Peter, an author, is booked into a lonely house - where a famous novelist mysteriously died - by his agent and instructed to write a murder mystery, on the theory that it will give good publicity. There is a thunderstorm, the house is struck by lightning and suddenly the characters from Peter's book appear in person - although only he can see them. He learns that there is a celestial casting agency which supplies all authors with characters to act out their plots: normally only in their imagination, but in this case the storm has somehow set them free.

Peter is now trapped inside his own setting, but the plot is out of his control...and someone is trying to kill him! As the characters are murdered one by one, the survivors race to solve a mysterious will and unmask the killer at the same time. Of course, they manage to do both and it comes as no surprise to find the butler was responsible - determined to achieve fame with the immortal line "The butler did it!". Peter finally realises that it is up to him to finish the story, and when he types "The End", all the characters are banished back to where they came from.

FROM THE GROUP

A rotten title for this play, I thought, but I liked it in spite of this. An unusual plot about a writer with writers block who somehow during a storm conjures up characters from various genres of fiction. Again, I had the full support of an excellent cast with a nice blend of experience and youthful newcomers. Mike Liassides had the mammoth role of the writer: he hardly left the stage for the entire play. He was ably supported by his fictional creations and each character was given their moment by the author. The sexy femme fatale, played vampishly by Lyndsey Kite; the sinister butler played by Dave Holden with great gravitas; the Miss Marple styled busybody played with permanent knitting by Ann Burfoot; a silly young thirties style hero who wasn't as brave as he pretended to be was played with hearty good nature by Martin Ellison and finally the young ingenue played with touching innocence by Clare Buckland in her biggest role to date. She also provided the writer's love interest because although the fictional characters are all spirited back in the end she re-appears in the flesh as a young woman sent by the agency to perform secretarial duties, so we have our conventional happy ending.

Mary - Producer

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