The cast of Birmingham Hippodrome’s first pantomime since 2019 arrives in Brum to launch Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Image: The cast of Golidlocks and the Three Bears. Photo by Simon Hadley
This week, the cast of Goldilocks and the Three Bears came together for the first time in costume to launch this year’s Hippodrome pantomime, which runs from Saturday 18 December 2021 – Sunday 30 January 2022.
This year’s spectacular festive show will be the first pantomime back in the Hippodrome since the venue recently reopened after almost 18 months of closure and will also mark Jason Donovan’s panto debut.
Alongside Jason– who will be playing the Evil Ringmaster – and Matt Slack as Ringmaster will be Doreen Tipton as Doreen the Lion Tamer, Andrew Ryan as Dame Betty Barnum, Alexia McIntosh as Candy Floss and Samantha Dorrance as Goldilocks.
The UK’s biggest regional panto follows Dame Betty Barnum and her daughter Goldilocks, who are battling to save their Big Top circus from the Evil Ringmaster who is intent on stealing their three loveable bears and leaving them in ruin.
Alongside the headline cast, the Hippodrome have also revealed a spectacular line-up of circus acts including the magnificent magician Phil Hitchcock, awe-inspiring motorcycle act Peter Pavlov and The Globe of Speed, the Death-Defying Gemini Sisters and international circus artist Pierre Marchand. Goldilocks and the Three Bears is the first circus-themed pantomime at the Hippodrome for 24 years and includes the set and production values of the sell-out London Palladium pantomime in 2019, alongside lots of new material created especially for the Birmingham cast and audience.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears runs at Birmingham Hippodrome Saturday 18 December 2021 – Sunday 30 January 2022. To book visit birminghamhippodrome.com or call 0844 338 5000 (4.5p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge).
By arrangement with The Really Useful Group Limited Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black & Christopher Hampton’s Sunset Boulevard comes to the Royal Albert Hall for one night only Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AP Friday 3rd December 2021, 7.30pm
In a special, one-night-only concert, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s iconic musical Sunset Boulevard will dazzle audiences at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 3rd December. Presented by The Alpha Family, in association with Quick Fantastic, the concert reunites stars Mazz Murray (Mamma Mia; We Will Rock You) as Norma Desmond, Ramin Karimloo (Les Misérables; Phantom of the Opera) as Joe Gillis, Zizi Strallen (Mary Poppins) as Betty Schaefer and Jeremy Secomb (Les Misérables) as Max von Mayerling.
Based on Billy Wilder’s legendary 1950 film starring Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard is heading to the Royal Albert Hall following a critically acclaimed performance at Alexandra Palace earlier this year. The 19-strong cast will be accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra on the evening, conducted by Alex Parker. Sunset Boulevard is directed by Jordan Murphy, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black, orchestrations by David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber, choreography by Joanna Goodwin and sound design by Paul Smith.
Named after the famous Hollywood street, Sunset Boulevard follows silent film star Nora Desmond as she dreams of a triumphant return to the silver screen, and struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis who is drawn into her sinister fantasy world.
Conductor Alex Parker comments, Following our one-off performance at Alexandra Palace earlier this year, our concert production of Sunset Boulevard is now back bigger and better than ever, taking over the Royal Albert Hall. This timeless classic delights audiences with well-known incredible numbers including As If We Never Said Goodbye, With One Look and The Perfect Year.
Amelia Kinu Muus and Stanton Wright will star as Bella and Beast respectively in a new version of Beauty and the Beast by Ciaran McConville, with music and lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer, opening at Rose Theatre from 3 December, with a press night on 10 December. They will be joined by Daniel Goode as René / Heureux, Paula James as Marguerite / Rousette and Oliver Senton as Francesco, and. Beauty and the Beast is directed by Lucy Morrell.
The cast is completed by a young company comprised of Rose Youth Theatre members including Amelie Abbott, Nosike Akinniboson, Georgia Anderson, Emily Baldwin, Jack Bartlett, Rory Brandreth McConnachie, Joey Burke, Cecily Cleave, Annie Coles, Rosa Cowper, Akira Dias Nagahwatte, Joshua Fernandes, Ronnie Flynn, Alexander Forster, Eva Gough, Isla Griffiths, Hannah Grigg, Cameron Hardcastle, Tom Hardman, Rhianna Jackson, Trisha Kashyap, Neri Keshet, Rebeca Lanaway Gonzalez, Amy Lawrence, Jemima Leason, Lily Licorish, Breanna Merritt, Phoebe Morley, Chloe Nichols, Sophie O’Hare, Alessia Perugi, Cathra Plant, Eva Rouse, Amelie Scott, Ellie Searl, Holly Slade, Maximilian Strain, Christina Taylor, Jacob Towey, Amelie Tu, Tait Walsingham, Ren Walsingham, Amber Westgate, Nathaniel Williams, Megan Wilson and Leah Wingfield.
Rose Youth Theatre is one of the largest youth theatres in the country, offering over 1,000 participants training, careers advice and the opportunity to take part in productions alongside professionals.
Amelia Kinu Muus grew up in Vienna, Austria with professional credits including Der Teufel Im Spiegel (Servus TV), Rosalia in West Side Story and June in Chicago both at Musikfestival Steyr. Stanton Wright has appeared as Dorian in Pictures of Dorian Gray (Jermyn St Theatre), Florizel in The Winter’s Tale (National Theatre) and Ronnie Lane in All or Nothing (West End and UK tour). He also appeared in The Kite Runner (UK Tour). Oliver Senton has appeared in Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Apollo & UK Tour), Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (Olivier award 2016), Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre)and All’s Well that Ends Well (RSC Gielgud/Swan, Stratford). Paula James’s credits include Gin Craze! (Royal & Derngate Theatre), Henry V, A Christmas Carol, Thy Eternal Summer, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Robin Hood, Julius Caesar (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Odyssey (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Snow Queen (Park Theatre) and Honour (Royal Court/Angry Bear Scratches). Daniel Goode’s theatre credits includeA Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Winterland (Rose Theatre, Kingston), The Taming of the Shrew, The Phoenician Women, Julius Caesar (RSC), Hamlet (Peter Hall Company) and Chicago (West End).
On her eighteenth birthday, Bella learns that her father is the victim of a terrible curse. She sets out across the mountains to a mysterious valley, determined to face the Beast who condemned her father. In a race to learn the truth, Bella must question everything she’s been told in order to find humanity in the strangest of places.
One of the oldest fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast is about the power of youth seeing beyond prejudice. In this new version written by Ciaran McConville (The Snow Queen), with music and lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer (Hansel and Gretel) and directed by Lucy Morrell (Treasure Island), experience this beloved story as you’ve never seen it before, with songs, heart-warming characters and a touch of magic!
Beauty and the Beast has set design by Frankie Bradshaw, costume design by Peter Todd and sound design by George Dennis. The Associate Director and Voice and Dialect Coach is Josh Mathieson, Choreographer is Aimee Leigh, the composer Eamonn O’Dwyer is Musical Director and the Associate Musical Director is Jody Robinson Casting is by Lucy Jenkins CDG and Sooki McShane CDG.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
3 December 2021 – 3 January 2022
Audio Described Performance 18 December 2021 at 11.30am
“When I microwave food, I have to look at the floor, I can’t watch the numbers ticking down. Another forty seconds closer to death. And, worse, failure.”
Liam McLaughlin Productions is pleased to announce the UK tour of Emma Hemingford’s Flinch.
Ali Wright
Flinch premiered in 2019 at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London to rave reviews. Described by The Guardian as a ‘promising debut that gets under the skin of a troubled relationship’and by The Stage as ‘light on its feet and appealingly playful’, the UK Tour of Flinch will open at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford on Saturday 6th November, before heading to Bristol, Bradford, Scarborough, and Leicester. It will then return to London, at the Pleasance Theatre, for a limited run.
Directed by Gemma Aked-Priestley,Flinch is a darkly comic examination of a modern relationship.
Ali Wright
Flinchwriter Emma Hemingford said, “After this surreal year for theatre, it feels so exciting to be taking Flinch on tour to live audiences! The play is a dark comedy about the way gender roles affect a young couple’s relationship – but it’s also about the things we think in secret, and say when we’re alone. I’m delighted that the Arts Council decided to support the show and make it possible. Please come along if we’re visiting somewhere near you!”
Jess is an actor, or will be, as soon as she hears back from her latest audition. Mark works in the city, an up-and-coming trader who’s never really made it past the starting line. The pair are definitely fine, almost-some-of-the-time – until the night they have an experience that threatens to change everything.
Ali Wright
When Mark reacts unexpectedly in the face of a violent mugging, his girlfriend Jess is left questioning the cornerstones of their relationship. Is she right to feel betrayed by Mark’s refusal to defend her – even when the incident turns out to have been a harmless prank? As the young couple try to mend their relationship, rom-com sparring reveals something more sinister: a thorny and unsettling discussion of gender politics that refuses to take sides.
A raw, unsettling comedy, Flinch is anintense 80-minute show that forces you, the audience, to occupy an uncomfortable space as both jury and accomplice. By presenting us with recognisable characters rather than moral pariahs, the play holds up a mirror up to our own most private instincts.
Ali Wright
Liam McLaughlin,Producer at Liam McLaughlin Productions said: “Emma is one of the UK’s finest emerging writers. After her Papatango and Alpine Fellowship shortlisting this year, I’m even more delighted to be working with her and producing this crucial play that’s incredibly relevant – even more so than in 2019”.
Flinchis generously supported by Arts Council England.
Tickets for Flinchare on sale now. Casting to be announced.
Derren Brown is currently performing, over five nights in Hull, as part of his current UK tour. This is his first brand new theatre show in six years, with I believe, nearly 200 shows in all, throughout the country, what a feat and a challenge.
With a request at the closing of the show not to divulge anything that happened during the evening, creating dread and panic and, a what am I going to write about?
This is the first time I’ve seen him live and wasn’t sure what to expect, things are always different live on the stage from what we see on television. From the outset Derren commands the stage and creates a rapport with the audience, we’re made to feel at ease and trusting, and so eager to find out what he has in store. What follows is 2 ½ hours of pure showmanship.
This is a one-man show, with a strong audience contribution. A good number of the audience were eager to get involved, me, I’m a bit more reserved, and it is only now that I wish I’d participated more, been more open. Working with willing volunteers, all randomly chosen, this selection process created a fair few laughs and near misses, you’ll have to see what I’m on about for yourself, takes us journey full of amazement and awe.
If you go and see this show, he asks you to take a small keepsake along with you, something has meaning for you. You never know, it could be you up on that stage.
Derren is a mentalist, an illusionist, a magician and so much more. He tells a story throughout, this was quite powerful and resonated with us, we should be living our lives to the full, not living in the shadows, what a motivational speaker! He had us laughing, bought us to tears, had us eating out of his hand and left us with our minds blown. He truly is a master of his craft.
It was fabulous to see the packed audience in this wonderful theatre, all mesmerised by this mind blowing show, and man. As we left you couldn’t help but wonder how the impossible was made possible and questioning reality, what was real and what wasn’t. A show not to be missed.
New Wimbledon Theatre, Wimbledon – until 25 September 2021
Reviewed by Alexandra Sykes
5*****
Rock of Ages
Photo Credit : The Other Richard
After over 18 months of a lack of theatre, seeing Rock of Ages was exactly what was needed.
Set in the late 80s on the infamous Sunset Strip in LA, Rock of Ages tells the story of Drew (Luke Walsh) who falls in love with Sherri (Rhiannon Chesterman) with a soundtrack of 80s songs that have everyone singing along. Despite the love story between the pair, it is derailed with the arrival of rock star Stacee Jaxx (Kevin Clifton). The true star of the show is Joe Gash as Lonny, who regularly breaks the fourth wall to remind the audience and members of the cast that they are in a musical.
Like all good musicals, Rock of Ages has its bad guys, this time it’s in the form of German property developer Hertz (Vas Constanti) and his son Franz (Andrew Carthy) who plan on pulling down the clubs and bars on the sunset strip, much to the annoyance of Regina (Gabriella Williams) who protests to save the Sunset Strip by chaining herself to buildings and going on hunger strike.
With a basic set made to look predominantly like the bar of the Bourbon Room, smaller sets are rolled on and off stage depending on the location of the scene. The on stage band makes the music flow throughout and the encouragement from the cast to sing along makes this musical a firm favourite with anyone who loves 80s music or a good night out, grab a ticket whilst you can.
He’s a cabbie with The Knowledge, but he can’t remember yesterday.
A moving, funny and searching single-hander written by Brian Coyle.
This production, co-produced by award-winning playwright Brian Coyle (Best Script in Festival at the Page to Stage Festival in 2016 and winner of the British Theatre Challenge in 2014) and performer John Rayment had two short runs in 2018, at the Hen & Chickens and Theatre N16 under the auspices of Mixed Up Theatre. Now it’s back, presented by Sarah Lawrie (producer of Best New Play at the 2021 Off West End Awards, SCROUNGER).
Director Charlotte Peters directs for stage and screen with recent theatre including THE MIRACLE WORKER (Chelmsford Civic Theatre), ALEXA, CRY ME A DANCE (Ilkley Playhouse) and DANCE (King’s Head Theatre). She is Associate Director on the National Theatre’s WAR HORSE and Stephen Daldry’s AN INSPECTOR CALLS and is Artistic Director of theatre company Brickdust. Other stage career highlights have included directing HOW LOVE IS SPELT (Southwark Playhouse), NORMALITY (The Other Palace), CASTE (Finborough), THE MOUTH OF A SHARK (Vaults Festival), the national tour of BIRDSONG (Birdsong Productions) and TIMELESS (Camden Fringe/N16). Charlotte’s recent films include APOLLO 13: THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, BILLY AND ME starring Jon Culshaw, and the critically acclaimed award-winning BIRDSONG (all for Original Online), as well as REASONS due for release next year (BFI). This winter, Charlotte is looking forward to directing KING ARTHUR at Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury and the interactive live-streamed PETER PAN for Panto Live. Twitter: @CharlottePeterz
Writer – Brian Coyle is a playwright and scriptwriter originally from Scotland and now based in Bristol. His stage plays include WELCOME TO PARADISE ROAD (EB Productions) performed in Liverpool and Manchester in 2016. It won Best Script in Festival at the Page to Stage Theatre Festival. His other plays include KING OF THE WORLD (EB Productions) performed in Liverpool and Manchester in 2018; THE BOX performed at Theatre Royal, Bath; and the multiple five-star reviewed TIMELESS (Mixed Up Theatre), performed in London in 2018. He was shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Playwriting Award twice, in 2015 and 2017. In 2014 he was one of the winners of the British Theatre Challenge, an international one-act play competition. Brian also writes radio and audio dramas. His radio play THE LOVE TEST was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2019 and a two-part audio-drama BABYWALL was released in 2020 by Tempest Productions. Twitter: @brianscoyle
Performer John Rayment is an actor, based in Essex. His work during the lockdowns and isolation has included the two-hander I DON’T DANCE by Ron Fernee, for So & So Arts Club, filmed as part of their Capsule Festival, and assorted roles in AVALON Volume 2 for Big Finish Productions. Before the recent strangeness, he appeared in PROTEST for The Space’s first “Two Fest” in 2020; CHEKHOV IN MOSCOW, also here at The Space, and two separate productions of JOURNEY’S END (one national tour, in 2016, for Immersion Theatre, the other, in 2017, resident in Ypres, Belgium). Twitter: @johncrayment
Producer Sarah Lawrie has been making theatre since 2013. Most recently she produced LEAVES at Jermyn Street Theatre, SCROUNGER by Olivier-nominated playwright Athena Stevens at the Finborough Theatre (which won Best New Play at the Off West End Awards 2021) and web series LATE NIGHT STARING AT HIGH RES PIXELS. She is currently producing Arts Council England funded LEAR ALONE – a one man reworking of King Lear mounted in partnership with Crisis. Sarah is a founding member and lead producer of And Tomorrow Theatre Company, whose inaugural production, DEATH OF A HUNTER, premiered at the Finborough Theatre in 2018 and transferred to The Other Place at the Brighton Fringe Festival. In 2019 she produced the world premiere of David Pinner’s EDRED, THE VAMPYRE for The London Horror Festival. Co-producing credits include MY ROMANTIC HISTORY (Old Red Lion), TREE HOUSE (Brewhouse Theatre Taunton and touring), MADAME BOVARY (Hope Theatre) and ORANGES & INK (Tristan Bates Theatre and touring), THE MARVELLOUS ADVENTURES OF MARYSEACOLE (C Venues, Edinburgh Festival) and DAMAGED GOODS (PlayMill Festival, The King’s Head. She was also associate producer on OPERA IN THE CITY FESTIVAL 2017, and is the co-creator and sole producer of Rula Lenska’s one woman show FROM DZIKOW TO WILLESDEN GREEN. Twitter: @La_Lawrie
Running Time: 60 minutes | Suitable for ages 12+
Company information
Written by Brian Coyle
Directed by Charlotte Peters
Produced by Sarah Lawrie
Stage Manager Matthew Radway
Cast
John Rayment
The press on TIMELESS
“An absolute treat, tender and strong all in one, you leave feeling profoundly affected… I didn’t want it to end.” | “You really see the strength and love of his never seen wife, and your heart breaks a bit for what she must be going through” | “Excellent writing by Brian Coyle, excellent direction by Charlotte Peters and wonderfully acted by John Rayment” ★★★★★ London Theatre 1
“Outstanding writing, directing and performing makes this a must see!” ★★★★★ North West End
“Timeless is a thoughtful, funny, and subtle portrayal of what memory loss does to a person’s sense of self and family. It deserves to be seen, considered, and pondered well after its conclusion.” | “A masterwork of understated wit and humanity” ★★★★ Everything Theatre
“A moving exploration of the distress and disorientation of memory loss… Rayment admirably portrays the protagonist with great skill and sensitivity” “Timeless is a stirring, illuminative piece about that which shapes us: the mind” “Coyle’s praiseworthy writing is intelligent, thought-provoking and human” ★★★★ The Upcoming
“Timeless bypasses the basic science of memory to explore the extent of which it is integral to our existence, how it gives us hopes and expectations based on our experiences, and how it gives us a sense of our identity by shaping our future, explaining our present, and capturing and reflecting on our past” The Lancet Neurology Journal
Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge – until 25 September 2021
Reviewed by Steph Lott
5*****
As I watched “Charlie and Stan” I remembered how much I used to love Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy films as a child. As an adult last night I realised how skilled these actors were, in a bygone age before films had colour and talking. Watching this production, I felt as if I were seeing Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy brought back to life again once more.
“Charlie and Stan” is a magical seafaring fantasy which imagines the transatlantic voyage of two silent movie icons 110 years ago. It is however based on some real life events. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel did set sail from Liverpool to New York as part of Fred Karno’s famous musical hall troupe. The show presents this journey through a series of manic, magical slapstick scenes that take place both on and off the ship, both past and present. It’s more a series of short stories strung together than one story and it’s hard to work out what it’s really about, if it is indeed “about” anything. However this does not detract in the slightest from how wonderful this production is. It is a delight to lose oneself in the wordless world Paul Hunter and his company create. They take the audience back in time, to another era; the age of vaudeville and silent movies.
Ioana Curelea’s amazingly versatile set transforms itself over and over. It’s a sea vessel, then backstage at a theatre, then it’s the backdrop to Charlie’s childhood, a Victorian melodrama of terrible parents. As with Chaplin’s film there is tender comedy mixed in with true sadness here. His mother is played by Sara Alexander, who also plays the piano throughout, exactly as it used to be with silent films. There are subtitles too!
The two leads are extraordinary in their roles. Danielle Bird is eerily like Charlie Chaplin. Her expressions, her pauses – the odd rolling gait. Jerone Marsh-Reid is an endearing Stan Laurel, who again captures the small details that makes the audience believe that Stan Laurel has once again come to life. I also really enjoyed the contrast of the gangly Stan Laurel with the pocket sized Charlie Chaplin. Jos Houben has given these two excellent proponents of physical theatre some wonderful routines and moves to play with. Again it was so evocative of those silent films I watched as a child, unaware of the skill that went into those slapstick routines that made me laugh so much before, and still do now.
Mention must also be made of the storming performance given by Nick Haverson. Not only does he play Frank Karno and also Chaplin’s drunken father, he also is a superb drummer and in a gradual reveal, makes Oliver Hardy appear before our eyes.
This is a charming, kind and life-affirming silent movie-style production that harks back to simpler times. I thoroughly recommend you go and see it.
Written and premiered in the early 1940s while WW2 raged on and the prospect of losing a precious loved one at short notice felt like a very real possibility, Noël Coward’s ghostly comedy is, perhaps not surprisingly, the first of ‘The Master’’s plays to be seen in the West End post-pandemic. To be fair, Richard Eyre’s Theatre Royal Bath revival was playing, with most of the current cast, at the Duke of York’s when everything shut down in March 2020, so was ripe for reopening. Here it is again then, in a different venue, and maybe with an added piquancy and relevance.
The ostensible centrepiece of the production remains Jennifer Saunders as Madame Arcati, the medium who conjures up Elvira, the dead wife of sceptic novelist Charles Condomine, much to the consternation of his current wife Ruth. Saunders is magnificent: this heroically eccentric woman is absolutely convinced of her own powers, and is genuinely affronted by the indifference and mockery of the posh Kent brigade she’s confronted with in the Condomine household. Got up like a Blyton-esque Head Girl gone to seed, she’s predictably hilarious, but Saunders also projects a wounded pride that lingers in the mind after the laughs have faded.
This Arcati’s delight at encountering another person with “the gift” (the Condomine’s fabulously bizarre, awkward maid Edith – Rose Wardlaw in a surprising, scene-stealing turn) is oddly touching, and the resemblance between the two women – an insight I’ve never encountered in any earlier staging of the play – makes for a satisfying symbiosis.
The performance of the night though turns out not to be Saunders, nor Madeleine Mantock’s impressively assured West End debut as a ravishing, unusually sexy Elvira, nor even Geoffrey Streatfeild handling Charles’s coming apart at the seams with incredible panache. In what is generally considered to be the least rewarding of the four lead roles, Lisa Dillon spins comedy gold out of insecure, passive-aggressive Ruth, eternally in unfavourable comparison (literally, as it turns out) to her more exotic predecessor, driving every scene she’s in. Proof that the greatest actors also make the best comedians, and also something of a Coward specialist (Design For Living at The Old Vic, Present Laughter at the NT, the Kim Cattrall Private Lives in the West End), Dillon brings a nervy charm and fragile elegance to the role, blending just the right notes of realism and camp (watch her flounce out of the room clad in dark glasses and a chiffon scarf leaving her husband to frolic with his phantom wife), this is a lesson in high comedy playing. Janie Dee’s Ruth was, for me, a highlight of the 2014 Angela Lansbury revival: Dillon turns out to be even better.
Elsewhere, Eyre’s production, played out on a handsome set by Anthony Ward that feels a little too big for the Pinter’s stage, and exquisitely lit by Howard Harrison, is a frustrating mix of inspired insights and an inability, or unwillingness, to let the Coward text speak for itself. It feels about twenty minutes too long, the use of incidental music is way too strident, and the pace drags considerably in the last half hour before the interval. Given that the last occupant of the Harold Pinter was Sonia Friedman’s presentation of a trio of exciting, diverse new plays and talent (Walden, J’Ouvert, Anna X), Blithe Spirit feels a bit like a retrograde step, theatrical comfort food. That said, it’s maybe what many people feel that they want right now.
Darlington Hippodrome – until Saturday 25 September 2021
3***
credit Paul Coltas
The Cat and the Canary finally made it to Darlington Hippodrome, after being the first show to be postponed due to Covid.
A spooky tale, with lots of shock and things to make you jump, but some funny bits too – including the nervous laughter.
On the 20th Anniversary of his death, the descendants of Cyrus West meet to finally hear the reading of his will, in his spooky and deserted house, in the middle of storm at the stroke of midnight. Add in the familial loathing of each other and an escaped lunatic and you have the basis for an excellent story, originally written by John Willard in 1922.
Britt Ekland leads the cast as Mrs Pleasant, the housekeeper, who has lived alone since the death of Mr West, save only for the company of ghosts and spirits. Crosby the Lawyer (Eric Carte) arrives to find the will had been discovered and read, despite the secrecy and measures put in place to prevent this. Slowly the family begin to gather – Harry (Gary Webster) the poor relation. Cicily (Priyasasha Kumari) and Susan (Marti Webb) arrived from India. Charlie (Ben Nealon) an actor. Paul (Anthony Costa) a bumbling vet and Annabelle (Tracy Shaw) a novelist. The beneficiary is announced, but there are caveats – in the event of sudden death or should they be declared insane, the fortune will go to the next in line.
It’s definitely a show to watch, full of twists and turns, clues and red herrings and, quite frankly, the magnificent set is worth the ticket alone. As we head towards the spookiest time of the year, this whodunnit is one to see
