Drayton Arms Theatre – until 11 March 2023
Reviewed by Alisdar (Alec) Legge and Virginia Fick
The plot centred initially on the discovery of a murder victim. The play opened by Lady Honoria , the daughter (Rosalind Blessed) screaming followed by he butler Manning, (Christian Ballantyne) setting the scene by describing the various characters.
What followed was then then a farcical parody of a classic murder mystery play redolent of Agatha Christie et al. It was fast paced with plenty of entrances and exits. There were plenty of laughs ,including belly laughs, very fast paced conversations all in all a very enjoyable play of that genre and without giving the ending away lots of twists and turns.
It should be noted that some of dialogue was of its time, some sexual and mysogenic content included but none of which appeared to shock or upset the audience present and which were relevant to the storyline.
I would perhaps single out the performances of Holly Ashman, as the house girl and Helen Bang as the Lady Susan the dotty mystic, for particular praise. In addition Toby Wynn Davies, as the horrible patriarch, gave a really characterful performance. The other members of the cast, Rosalind Blessed the daughter, Peter Rae, the rake and the writer, together with Duncan Wilkins, the son, also gave tremendous performances.
The performers were well rehearsed and their timing during the play was excellent. The play was set in a pre World War ll country house and shabby period furniture which included a tatty chaise longue as a centrepiece. The lighting and sound effects were effective and on time. The players entered and exited via a black curtain covering the whole of the back of the stage and also by the entrance door to the theatre. The closeness of the actors to the audience gave a really intimate feel and the dialogue was very audible.
All in all a very amusing, funny play performed flawlessly by a very talented and professional cast which made for a n extremely pleasant evening at the theatre.
The Drayton Arms is situated on the 153, Old Brompton Road, SW5 0LJ, a 10 minute walk from either the Gloucester Underground Station, or from the Fulham Road, Beaufort Street bus stop.
The theatre is situated on the first floor of the building and accessed through the bar. There are two flights of steep stairs which lead to the theatre with no obvious disabled access. The theatre itself consists of a sloped seating area of about 50 seats with the performing area being the floor at the front of the seats.