Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge – until Sat 19th Feb 2022
Reviewed by Steph Lott
3***
A mysterious elegant butler greets a group of strangers invited to Boddy Manor one dark and stormy evening. Upon arrival, they are given aliases – Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs Peacock, Reverend Green, Mrs. White and Colonel Mustard – and are told not to reveal who they really are. They have all received the same mysterious invitation from Lord Boddy and they all have something to hide. The guests are given six items – a revolver, lead pipe, piece of rope, candlestick, spanner, and a dagger. Could these be murder weapons?
So begins Cluedo, the stage adaptation of the popular board game, written by Sandy Rustin and directed by Mark Bell, director of the award-winning The Play That Goes Wrong and A Comedy About A Bank Robbery.
This is a slick fast-paced slapstick comedy with the jokes, plenty of physical comedy and laughs coming thick and fast. Mystery, hysteria and murder follows as the inhabitants and visitors to Boddy Manor are picked off in a variety of ways and the audience try and work out which of the characters we know and love to suspect, has done it. Was it Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the lead pipe? Or Mrs White in the library with the dagger?
I was intrigued how they would create the plot for a murder mystery out of a board game where participants guess “whodunnit”. I didn’t know there had been a film before based on the Hasbro boardgame called Clue starring Tim Curry. It’s an excellent silly show that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but which works really well and is performed immaculately. There are lots of laughs and the cast delivers the show with excellent timing and pace.
Considerable ingenuity has clearly gone into the design (David Farley) of the sets and the lighting (Warren Letton). I really enjoyed the use of the stage and set to allow for all of the familiar rooms to appear in the main entrance hall, complete with secret passages and concealing paintings. The use of the space and the actors themselves as stagehands gives the show a sense of organised chaos and a rapid smooth flow of action; this should be no surprise in a Mark Bell production.
Although the star of the show with top billing is Michelle Collins (who does give a splendid performance as Miss Scarlett), the standout performance for me is the elegant and sinister butler Wadsworth, played by Jean-Luke Worell with great aplomb and style. Laura KIrman as the French maid whose accent kept slipping was very funny as his sidekick. Tom Babbage as the hapless Reverend Green got thunderous applause in one scene where a chandelier falls in slow motion towards him; he really does have a gift for physical comedy. A special shout out must also go to Liam Horrigan, who, in the performance I saw, appeared so many times in different characters it was hard to keep up!
I thoroughly enjoyed this slapstick spoof of a murder mystery and didn’t manage to work out whodunnit. Defintely worth going to see.