Curtain Up On Murder

A seaside amateur dramatic company are starting an evening rehearsal at their rented theatre at the end of the pier, hoping to get away before the oncoming storm breaks. Director Martin, his wife Sylvia, leading man Alex and character lady Moppet are being assisted by stage hand Sandra and her friend Ginny. It soon becomes clear that Alex and Sylvia are having an affair: unfortunately, Alex's girlfriend Linda has followed him and is dismayed to have her suspicions confirmed. Even more unfortunately, stand-in caretaker Harry has gone home after accidentally locking them all in together. When the storm knocks out most of the pier lights as well, everyone settles in for a cold and tedious wait until morning.

Sandra and Ginny play what appears to be a practical joke gone terribly wrong, as Sandra pretends to be a ghost to terrify the others, but immediately afterwards is killed by a fall through the backstage trapdoor. In the aftermath of that, Linda chooses to publicly reveal Sylvia's infidelity to Martin, and then Moppet - after drinking from Martin's hip flask - is apparently poisoned. Shortly afterwards, Linda is found strangled and the survivors gather in bewildered paranoia. Martin, an unlikely hero, sets off determinedly to swim for help. Then Ginny, too, is poisoned...and Alex and Sylvia both collapse.

They wake to find themselves prisoners of Sandra, who had faked her death. It transpires that her brother had committed suicide after the group had made his best-ever play into a laughing-stock. Since then, Sandra and her father - Harry, pretending to be the caretaker - had plotted a grisly revenge that will be complete when Harry burns the pier down with Alex and Sylvia still inside. Their hopes of rescue are dashed when he tells them he has already drowned Martin, and Alex breaks down, pleading for his life and putting all of the blame on Martin and a dignified, resigned Sylvia.

When Harry goes to start the fire, though, Martin locks him in the understage and reappears to knock Sandra out. He had expected the attempt on his life and managed to fool Harry, leaving him free to mount a rescue. Except that Sylvia furiously refuses to let him rescue Alex, leaving him only a knife and the opportunity to effect out his own release. Martin and Sylvia escape to freedom, just as the smoke starts to billow outwards from Harry's fire and Alex starts to scream...

...and then Sandra bursts into giggles while Harry appears from the front of the hall, revealed as Peter, the producer and very pleased indeed with the results of this dress rehearsal. The cast gather round, ready to adjourn to the pub, while Peter has the theatre darkened, then turns to the audience with the words: "Oh, are you still here? Well, you might as well go home now, it's all over. Good night."

I had read this play a few times in the past, but always found something I would rather produce instead. This time, it reached the top of the pile and - for something that had been on the "one day, maybe" list, it turned out to be be quite a little gem! I had always liked the ending, but considered that to be a bit of a one-trick pony. Fortunately, I was wrong: in fact, as rehearsals went on and the cast grew into their characters, it actually worked far better than that. There are several layers of play-within-a-play, opportunities for the cast to build up tension - and humour - some entertaining effects and the plot veers wildly across several genres. All in all, it was thoroughly entertaining to direct and the cast certainly seemed to enjoy putting it all together. New member Zahir fitted in well and put in an impressive debut performance, as suave lover turned abject coward. Clare M relished the opportunity to go from eager helper into murderous villainess, while Dave's transformation from pompous ass to stiff-upper-lipped hero of the hour was excellent (and his character had more than his share of the best lines, too). Clare B and Linda, as love rivals and very different characters, hit sparks and highs and lows exactly where they needed to. Ann, in full flow as dippy redhead Moppet, was delightfully irrepressible. Sandra (the real Sandra, that is) and Tim, with smaller but nonetheless crucial parts, put in solid turns to move the play along briskly. Audience numbers were extremely high (and extremely appreciative), making it all worthwhile on the nights.

No play is ever perfect, but some of them come close enough. I really couldn't find anything bad to say about this one, or about the way we performed it. Quite simply, it was a pleasure to produce.