Forum Theatre, Malvern – until 30th September 2023
Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau
4.5****
Crimes On Centre Court is a murder mystery whodunnit parody adapted from an award winning podcast.
Some of the zaniest pre-show music you will ever hear preceded one of the wackiest opening numbers you will encounter – a barber-shop quartet singing hedge! This hedge featured prominently throughout, outlining the plot, singing exposition points and as stage hands moving the scenery and props around.
The surprisingly cogent plot begins with the murder of Lord Knows, Chairman of the Whombledun International Invitational Tennis Tournament, prompting his son, Hugh Knows (I know, stick with it) to call in private investigators Perry and Penny Pink to crack the case…
The cast is tiny – in fact, it’s the entire hedgerow quartet. Each actor plays multiple diverse roles meaning two impressive things leap out at you – given the paucity of persons on stage, there’s a lot of dialogue for each to learn. Secondly, that the costume changes alone necessitate a lot of running around and mark hitting (being in the right place at the right time) so the slapstick and visual gags work. I’m surprised the actors had any breath left to deliver such a wordy script!
The inventive character names (already mentioned but my personal favourite being tennis player Notta Damclu) and the tortuously convoluted wordplay provided much scope for verbal misunderstandings (the hot chilli exchange stood out in the memory). Alliteration featured heavily too, impressively delivered, especially from the improbably haired Hugh Knows. I’ll just mention here that I wish there had been a cast list (or introductions on stage) so I could praise the performers individually by name. The visual gags were hilarious and I particularly enjoyed the line-call action replay. Just when you thought they had rung all the laughs they could out of the joke they threw another one in. Inventive use of the minimal modular set (such as pull down blinds as a road backdrop for a driving scene) and the scoreboard, made plenty from very little and was even funnier for it, adding to the impression of a fast paced show (those hedges were really zipping around).
It was worth the price of admission just to laugh yourself silly at the slow motion tennis match – how they did those special effects God only knows (where’s the emoji wink when you need it? Haha). The story fizzed along at breakneck speed to the denouement with recap scenes necessitating multiple rapid character changes – giving the actors plenty of scope for those exasperated looks and “improvisational asides” that are always crowd pleasers. If you love The Goes Wrong series you will love this. A suitably convoluted twist in the tale and romantic ending brought the curtain down on a wonderful evening’s fun.
Intrigue, murder, romance, sport, fresh fruit, outlandish murders, whodunit, fresh fruit… farcical stuff in the mould of PG Wodehouse meets Christie, through the Goons and Python. The work had everything including the “going down” (stairs, escalator, lift) gag which is always welcome.
Serving up volley after volley of top-notch tomfoolery with very few faults and many aces, one doesn’t need Hawk-eye or replays to know this is a surefire hit. Game, set & match – I absolutely loved it.