Alexandra Mather’s Brooke Ashton, mezzanine level, left, Mark Simmonds’ Tim Allgood and Andrew Isherwood’s Garry Lejeune; Adrian Cook’s Frederick Fellowes, seated, Jessica Hardcastle’s Belinda Blair, Pearl Mollison’s Poppy Norton-Taylor and Helen Spencer’s Dotty Otley in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Noises Off. Picture: Matthew Warry
COMPANY founder, director and designer Robert Readman will sign off his directorial duties for York company Pick Me Up Theatre with Merrily We Roll Along at Theatre@41, Monkgate, next April.
First, however, this week’s production of Michael Frayn’s 1982 farce Noises Off is his last at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, where his distinctive laugh can be heard booming out at each performance, as if encountering Frayn’s fractious dialogue and comedic mayhem for the first time.
Your reviewer finds himself laughing almost as much as Readman, having last experienced Frayn’s play in its first-ever staging in the round, after 43 years, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, as recently as August 2025.
Craig Kirby’s sozzled actor Selsdon Mowbray in the guise of The Burglar in Nothing On, the play-within-the-play in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Noises Off. Picture: Matthew Warry
Readman gave the design brief to Rich Musk for the rotating stage that will go from staging the dress rehearsal in Weston-super-Mare to showing a mid-tour Ashton-under-Lyne matinee performance of Nothing On, Frayn’s deliberately clunky, maladroit play-within-a-play from backstage, before spinning 180 degrees again for the even more calamitous last night in Stockton-on-Tees.
Musk delivers the classic stage for a farce: no fewer than seven malfunctioning and misbehaving doors on two floors of a commodious des-res where everything that could go wrong does go wrong both on and off stage.
Instant calmer: Alexandra Mather’s Brooke Ashton takes a breather in a yogic exercise in Noises Off. Picture: Matthew Warry
Rory Mulvihill’s exasperated, vainglorious director, the ever-thespian Lloyd Dallas, is at the helm of Nothing On, expecting his harassed technical team of Mark Simmonds’s dogsbody Tim Allgood and Pearl Mollison’s overworked stage manger Poppy Norton-Taylor to do his running for him.
Already distracted by his upcoming Richard III in Aberystwyth, Dallas strives against the tide to steer his cast of has-beens (Craig Kirby’s drunkard veteran Selsdon Mowbray and Helen Spencer’s tour-backing grandee Dotty Otley; touring plodders (Adrian Cook’s over-thinking, physically fragile Frederick Fellowes and Jessica Hardcastle’s unflappable Belinda Blair), and aspiring talents (Andrew Isherwood’s Garry Lejeune and Alexandra Mather’s company ingenue Brooke Ashton).
Craving a quick exit? Rory Mulvihill’s acerbic director, Lloyd Dallas, looking as frustrated as ever in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Noises Off. Picture: Matthew Warry
Frayn is in mischievous mood, with no room for pathos, as if throwing his own theatrical frustrations into the maelstrom of a warring company replete with the luvvies and the loveless, the boozer and the philanderer, the sex and drudgery and rollercoaster of fallouts in a claustrophobic world of fragile egos, frazzled minds, over-active bodies and a hopeless desire to somehow ensure the hapless show must go on.
Readman’s cast is crammed with supreme York talent, well drilled in ensemble commotion, topped off by Mulvihill’s veteran relish for a divisive director, Spencer’s persistent battles with plates of sardines, the outstanding Isherwood’s physical comedic prowess and boundlessly quizzical air and Mather’s ditziest of dizzy blondes.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm & 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
No British farce would be complete without dropped trousers. Adrian Cook’s forlorn Frederick Fellowes obliges as Andrew Isherwood’s Garry Lejeune looks on in Noises Off. Picture: Matthew Warry
Eija Gibson’s cast at the read-through rehearsal for It’s A Wonderful Life at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
THE cast is in place for Theatre@41, Monkgate’s debut community Christmas production, It’s A Wonderful Life, adapted for the stage by Mary Elliot Nelson.
Rehearsals have begun already under director Eija Gibson, who has picked a 13-strong troupe of York performers for the production run from December 10 to 23. Some have performed previously at the independent theatre, joined by actors new to the venue.
Eija says: “I am absolutely thrilled to have cast such a talented, creative group of community actors. I am so excited to be working with each and every one of them and see the magic this collaboration creates.”
Eija Gibson: Director of Theatre@ 41’s community production of It’s A Wonderful Life
Mary Elliott Nelson’s stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s festive film – premiered in New York City on December 20 1946 – follows down-on-his-luck banker George Bailey as he is paid a visit by his guardian angel on Christmas Eve 1946.
George will be played by Theatre@41 chair and actor Alan Park, who last performed at the black box theatre in 2023, when he starred in Duncan Macmillan’s one-man show, Every Brilliant Thing, and White Rabbit Red Rabbit with Black Treacle Theatre.
The Bailey family will feature Cassi Roberts as Mary Hatch Bailey, Paul Stonehouse as Uncle Billy and Matthew Wignall in his Theatre@41 debut as Harry Bailey, along with Samantha Goddard as Angel Josephine and Sarah Walker as Violet.
Alan Park: Cast in the lead role of George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life
Sonia Di Lorenzo: Playing George Bailey’s guardian angel in It’s A Wonderful Life
The role of George’s guardian angel goes to Sonia Di Lorenzo, while Dara Klymenko, founder of York’s Ukrainian theatre company DSpace, will play Angel Gloria, as well as joining the creative team as movement director.
In the shoes of antagonist Mr Potter will be Rory Mulvihill, following up his role as temperamental, egotistical director Lloyd Dallas in Pick Me Up Theatre’s production of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off this week at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.
Mark Simmonds, Paul French, Darren Barrott and Lily Geering complete the cast, playing an array of eccentric characters that make up the town of Bedford Falls.
Matthew Wignall: Making his Theatre@41 debut as Harry Bailey
Dara Klymenko: Playing Angel Gloria
Theatre@41 is looking for volunteers to fill backstage roles, including stage managers, set builders, painters and props gatherers. Those interested are encouraged to send an email to [email protected] to find out more.
Theatre@41 trustee Livy Potter says: “Theatre@41 is a volunteer-powered theatre and we’re incredibly proud of this. Over the past five years, we’ve helped dozens of residents learn about putting on shows and creating theatre with and for communities in York.
“We’re keen for this production to be an opportunity for the people of the city to develop new skills whilst bringing the world of Bedford Falls to life in our studio theatre. We can’t wait to throw a lasso around the moon to re-create the most life affirming of Christmas stories.”
Theatre@41, Monkgate, York presents It’s A Wonderful Life for 14 performances from December 10 to 23. Performances: 7.30pm (except Dec 13, 14 and 21) plus 2pm, December 12, 13 and 19. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Cassi Roberts: Cast as Mary Hatch Bailey
Theatre@41’s poster for this winter’s community production, It’s A Wonderful Life
Rory Mulvihill’s Lloyd Dallas, right, casts his dyspeptic directorial eye over his cast for Nothing On, the play-within-the-play in Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off: Pearl Mollison’s Poppy Norton-Taylor, left, Craig Kirby’s Selsdon Mowbray, Alexandra Mather’s Brooke Ashton, Andrew Isherwood’s Garry Lejeune, Helen Spencer’s Dotty Otley, Adrian Cook’s Frederick Fellowes and Mark Simmonds’ Tim Allgood
MICHAEL Frayn first had the notion to write his play-within-a-play Noises Off while observing his play The Two Of Us from the wings.
A one-act version, Exits, entered the stage in 1977, to be followed by the three-act full-fat farce in February 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, that has never exited ever since.
Now, this week’s Pick Me Up Theatre production will be company founder Robert Readman’s last as director at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, where he has assembled the peachiest of York casts.
Step forward Helen Spencer, Andrew Isherwood, Alexandra Mather, Rory Mulvihill, Pearl Mollison, Mark Simmonds, Craig Kirby, Jessica Hardcastle and Adrian Cook from tonight (6/10/2026) to Saturday.
“Noises Off takes a wicked look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss and passionate affairs turn every performance into a high-risk adventure,” says Robert.
“This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run.”
Robert continues: “Frayn gives us a window into the inner workings of theatre behind the scenes, progressing from flubbed lines and missed cues in the dress rehearsal to mounting friction between cast members in the final performance.
“Noises Off has a great attraction to the public, but it has even more so to actors, who crave playing Frayn’s roles,” says Rory Mulvihill
“Brimming with slapstick comedy, Noises Off is a delightful backstage farce, complete with slamming doors, falling trousers and –of course – sardines.”
Taking the role of Lloyd Dallas, the sarcastic, condescending, egotistical, exasperated, temperamental director of Nothing On, is veteran York actor and erstwhile Leeds solicitor Rory Mulvihill, who turned 70 in June.
“I actually saw Noises Off in the early 1980s, very soon after it first came out, and I was absolutely blown away by it,” he recalls.
“It spoke to me as someone who performs in shows how particular actors react to things going wrong on stage.
“I particularly remember the dizzy blonde character Brooke Ashton (to be played this week by Alexandra Mather), one of those actors who knows she has certain lines to say in a certain order, and whatever happens, she will get them out in that order.
“Noises Off has a great attraction to the public, but it has even more so to actors, who crave playing Frayn’s roles.”
Relishing his latest role, Rory says: “The great thing about my part is that I’m able to reproduce some of the characteristics of the directors I’ve worked with – and Frayn has done that too of course.
Rory Mulvihill’s director, Lloyd Dallas, seeking urgent lubrication as matters off stage start to overwhelm his already catastrophic production of Nothing On in Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off. Picture: Matthew Warry
“I don’t normally get involved in ‘back stories’, but Frayn has done a spoof biography of each character, and so you get enough clues from his writing in the play and the biog that Lloyd Dallas is a failed director who clearly thinks he’s better than he is. He has a very high opinion of himself.
“He’s a bully, bullying everyone, particularly the gofer, Tim Allgood, [the overworked, exhausted, and easily flustered stage manager, played by Mark Simmonds from tonight], but they all take it, all under that veneer of ‘camp theatre speak’!
“One hundred per cent you play Lloyd ‘up’. How else could you play it? I don’t think it’s possible to play him ‘down’. You couldn’t do it deadpan.”
Noises Off may be 44 years old, but its home truths of the acting world resonant as deeply as ever. “The only way you know it’s a period piece is some of its references, such as to the Queen Mother, and the lack of modern technology, but otherwise it’s timeless. However, I have grown a moustache and sideburns – my partner loathes them! – to be more in keeping with the period,” says Rory. “Fashion-wise it’s a period piece but the humour feels contemporary.”
Describing Frayn’s comedic style, Rory says: “It’s 100 per cent grounded in things he has observed – like [Alan] Ayckbourn too. Their genius is to take what they see and turn it into dialogue, like comedians do, reproducing it in a way that’s funny to the audience.
“What differs from Ayckbourn is how there’s no pathos in Noises Off. In Ayckbourn’s plays, it’s always there somewhere. It’s the same with Alan Bennett – I was lucky enough to do Chip In The Sugar, which was both hilarious and emotionally draining at the same time.”
Should you be wondering if one particular director has had an impact on Rory’s portrayal of Lloyd Dallas, he says: “I did over 40 shows with [the late] Bev Jones – and Lloyd is like him in saying ‘love’ and ‘honey’ – but unlike Lloyd, it was lovely to work with him!”
Pick Me Up Theatre in Noises Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for this week’s production of Michael Frayn’s theatrical farce Noises Off
Pascha Turnbull’s Ursula, James Dickinson’s Flotsam and Adam Gill’s Jetsam in York Light Opera Company’s Disney’s The Little Mermaid. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen Photography
THREE matinees this week are testament to the family appeal of Disney’s aquatic adventure The Little Mermaid, a show ideal for half-term week.
Across the city from February 16 to 18 at York Barbican, a Tylosaurus, the largest predatory marine reptile to ever grace our oceans and now the largest marine puppet ever made, will be making a big splash in a purpose-built tank in Jurassic Live. “If you sit near the front, you will get wet,” comes the safety alert.
No such warning is necessary at the Theatre Royal, but in the absence of water, everything else is thrown at director/choreographer Martyn Knight’s hi-tech production: an LED screen by AV Matrix; flying by Blue Chilli Flying; images and animations by Broadway Media Distribution and additional scenic elements by Scenic Projects, Lowestoft, and Curtain Call Productions, Crewe.
Bon appetit: Zander Fick’s Chef Louis
The tentacle costume for 6ft tall Pascha Turnbull’s evil sea witch, the giant squid Ursula, has been made specially by Caroline Guy, to go with a spectacular array of sea-world costumes by Spotlight Costume Hire and additional costumes created by York Light.
Wardrobe coordinator Carly Price has overseen a sewing team of ten, complemented by 21 dressers at the theatre; ten people in Ellie Ryder’s wig, hair and make-up team; ten more in the stage crew, all serving a cast of 43. Set building took 14 people; Paul Laidlaw conducts an excellent nine-strong orchestra, three of them on keyboards.
Those numbers tell you this is a big, expensive show to mount, taking on the challenge of staging a musical produced originally by Disney Theatrical Productions, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale and John Musker and Ron Clements’s animated 1989 film for Disney.
Monica Frost’s Ariel in mermaid mode in Disney’s The Little Mermaid
Built on a book by Doug Wright, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman & Glenn Slater, this is every inch a Disney show, in style, content and philosophy, but Knight’s cast still brings a York Light air to it too.
This is helped by the experienced presence of not only Turnbull’s terrific villain, Ursula, but also Neil Wood’s mandarin Grimsby, Martin Lay’s bird-brained Scuttle and in particular Rory Mulvihill’s stern King Triton, ruler of the underworld.
Turnbull’s Ursula and her henchmen with the flashing footwear, James Dickinson’s Flotsam and Adam Gill’s Jetsam, savour the dark side with more than a hint of pantomime villainy, and Turnbull’s rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls is a formidable finale to Act One.
Neil Wood’s Grimsby and James Horsman’s Prince Eric
Jonny Holbek’s Caribbean crustacean, Sebastian the crab, carries the heaviest comedy load, and although painting a face red to deliver a calypso caricature in Under The Sea might not be on a par with a white actor blacking up as Othello in 2024, the Jamaican jive could sit awkwardly for those who cringed at Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Nevertheless, Holbek is such a personable presence on stage – witness his Dewey Finn lead turn in School Of Rock last November – that his Sebastian goes down well, breaking down theatre’s fourth wall in the style of a panto daft lad.
Under The Sea, by the way, is as big and bright and fun as the big ensemble number should be, while Monica Frost’s Ariel, the mermaid who makes a deal with Ursula to take on human form (at the cost of her voice), relishes her spotlight in Part Of Your World in a resolute lead performance.
Rory Mulvihill’s King Triton
Lay’s Scuttle and the Seagulls could not be more positive in Positoovity, danced to tap choreography by Rachel Whitehead, and if you want an actor to maximise a cameo with comic flair and French drama, step forward Zander Fick’s Chef Louis in Les Poissons in the palace kitchen.
Roller-skating is all the rage under the sea for Triton’s daughters (Frost’s Ariel, Annabel Van Griethuysen’s Aquata, Helen Miller’s Andrina, Madeleine Hicks’s Arista, Chloe Chapman’s Atina, Sophie Cunningham’s Adella and Sarah Craggs’s Allana), who swish hither and thither and sing siren-style.
James Horsman’s Prince Eric, the royal who would prefer to be a sailor, is played as straight as a ruler, fitting the Disney tropes of dark hair, slim frame and mono-focus on his one – find his bride – task in hand.
Jonny Holbek’s Sebastian the crab and Ryan Addyman’s Flounder performing Under The Sea
Ryan Addyman, who had everyone talking about his Jamie New in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Teen Edition last June, was promptly head-hunted to play Flounder, and he anything but flounders as Ariel’s fabulous fish sidekick here. One to watch, definitely.
Dial M for Mermaid if you enjoy Disney with a York Light touch, colours galore, fairytale fantasy, Turnbull terrors and Mulvihill regal authority
Performances: 7.30pm nightly, plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Martin Lay’s Scuttle, front, and the Gulls dancing Positoovity in York Light’s tap number in Disney’s The Little Mermaid
Pashca Turnbull in full regalia as Ursula, the sea witch, in York Light Opera Company’s production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
WHY is the seaweed always greener in someone else’s lake? Find out in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the spectacular finale to York Light Opera Company’s 70th celebrations that opens tonight (7/2/2024) at York Theatre Royal to coincide with half-term week.
Director Martyn Knight and musical director Paul Laidlaw are at the wheel for this underwater adventure with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman & Glenn Slater and book by Doug Wright, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairytale and John Musker & Ron Clements’s 1989 animated film.
York Light bring LED projection, dazzling costumes and choreography by Rachel Whitehead to the timeless enchanting tale of Ariel, a mermaid who dreams of trading her tail for legs to explore the human world. Aided by mischievous sidekick Flounder and the cunning Ursula, Ariel strikes a bargain that will change her life forever, but all is not what it seems.
Ariel will be portrayed by Monica Frost, Flounder by Ryan Addyman, Sebastian the crab by Jonny Holbek, Prince Eric by James Horsman and King Triton by the York stage stalwart Rory Mulvihill.
Billed as “the now renowned witch performer”, Pascha Turnbull will play sea witch Ursula, the greedy squid with powers of dark magic that, spoiler alert, will lead to her banishment.
“I haven’t seen the live action re-make [Rob Marshall’s 2023 film] – on purpose! Melissa McCarthy plays Ursula in that version. No pressure there then!” says Pascha.
How would she describe Ursula? “I think she’s more than cunning. She’s sly, devious, manipulative…she’s just awesome! Some little girls dream of being princesses, but some dream of playing villains – like me! Baddies absolutely have more fun – and you don’t have to kiss anybody!
“The big powerful woman, the larger-than-life character, is just something I’ve always enjoyed. On top of that, my natural singing voice is alto –they tend to play villains – and I’m 6ft tall.”
Pascha Turnbull being made up for the role of evil squid Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Armed with “lots of tentacles I have to co-ordinate”, Pascha forms a new York Light team with James Dickinson’s Flotsam and Adam Gill’s Jetsam. “We’re Team Evil, as we call ourselves. James and Adam are even taller than me, so we’re a formidable team when we’re on stage together!” she says.
“I’ve seen James and Adam in other shows, like Joseph And The Mazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and James happens to work in the print industry, like me.”
Should you be wondering, Pascha and her brother Nick – even taller at 6ft 5ins – run Inc Dot Design & Print, in Seafire Close, York, a print and graphic design company set up by their father, John Turnbull, in 1980.
“I’ve always said it’s great to be tall because you always get served at the bar,” says Pascha, who will be part of a cast of 40 in York Light’s show, performing a suitably big solo number, Poor Unfortunate Souls, to boot. “That song sums up her manipulative nature. She’ll help people to live out their dreams, but there’s always a payment required!”
Looking forward to playing the York Theatre Royal stage, Pascha says: “York Light have always done their February shows there. It’s a heck of a feeling performing in such an iconic theatre building, and just having that professional experience around you is fantastic. Being back in that theatre makes you feel giddy,
“The fact that we’re doing this show over half-term means so many more people can see it, especially with all the matinees, and anything that encourages people into the theatre is a good thing. I’m very excited!”
York Light Opera Company in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, York Theatre Royal, tonight 7/2/2024) until February 17, except February 12. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York Light Opera Company’s cast for Disney’s The Little Mermaid
Monica Frost’s Ariel
Ariel: Monica Frost Ursula: Pascha Turnbull Mersister Aquata: Annabel Van Griethuysen Mersister Andrina: Helen Miller Mersister Arista: Madeleine Hicks Mersister Atina: Chloë Chapman Mersister Adella: Sophie Cunningham Mersister Allana: Sarah Craggs Prince Eric: James Horsman
York Light debutant Ryan Adamson in the role of Flounder
Grimsby: Neil Wood Flounder: Ryan Addyman Sebastian: Jonny Holbek Scuttle: Martin Lay King Triton: Rory Mulvihill Flotsam: James Dickinson Jetsam: Adam Gill Chef Louis: Zander Fick
Annabel van Griethuysen’s Mersister Aquata, “Ariel’s mean, ambitious and devious big sister”. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
And then there were ten: standing, Mark Simmonds, left, Martyn Hunter, Mike Hickman, Andrew Roberts, Ian Giles, Rory Mulvihill and Andrew Isherwood; seated, Jeanette Hunter, left, Florence Poskitt and Jessica Murray, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s And Then There Were None
NOT to be mistaken for Lucy Bailey’s “21st century reinvention” of Agatha Christie’s best-selling crime novel, bound for the Grand Opera House in November, this is the first of three Pick Me Up productions, made in York, one per month, this autumn.
For the record, Pick Me Up producer Robert Readman secured the rights for staging And Then There Were None before the Fiery Angel, ROYO and Royal & Derngate co-production emerged over the horizon.
He had put in place an autumn season to show off all the talents at Pick Me Up’s disposal: experienced hands for the “straight play”, Christie’s posh house party thriller; blossoming youths in The Worst Witch in late-October, and musical comedy exponents in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein the following week.
Readman is a Christie aficionado – he could pick her as his specialist subject for Mastermind – but decided to spread the directorial workload for the season ahead, having already cast And Then There Were None before the handing the reins to cast member Andrew Isherwood to steer a film noir-style nail biter.
Law and order: Rory Mulvihill’s judge, Sir Lawrence Wargrave, left, and Andrew Isherwood’s Detective William Henry Blore
Readman will direct Young Frankenstein, preceded by Rosy Rowley overseeing The Worst Witch, but his creativity is at play in And Then There Were None too in his design for a Christie murder mystery set in 1939 with Europe on the brink of war.
Christie had talked of a bleak house that should feel like it had long been empty, furnished but stark and unwelcoming. Readman, with his collector’s eye for acquiring props, furniture, costumes and more besides at his Chicken Sheds warehouse in Bubwith, delivers the period look to the T.
Furniture from a friend’s house move, tick. A redundant fireplace from another friend’s refurb, tick. The glass-framed doors from York Theatre Royal’s production of Private Lives, tick. The ten little soldier boy models, from Readman’s research, tick. An Ercol chair from the Readman family stock, tick.
He assembles them on an end-on/side on set that dominates the Theatre@41 black box, deliberately so to give Isherwood’s production an oppressive, claustrophobic air. There will be no escape from Soldier Island, off the Devon Coast, for the eight house guests, butler and his housekeeper wife, assembled there at the intriguing invitation of a certain Mr and Mrs U N Owen (whose identity and whereabouts shall indeed remain unknown).
Passing judgement: Jessica Murray’s Emily Brent vents her spleen at Florence Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None
One by one, they are introduced to the audience, first the husband-and-wife staff Rogers and Mrs Rogers, played by husband-and-wife Martyn and Jeanette Hunter, Martyn delightfully understated, Jeanette gone, spoiler alert, all too soon.
Not before Rogers follows instructions to play a sternly delivered recording that declares all of them to have a wicked past and a secret destined to seal their fate, each being marked for murder.
As the weather turns thunderous, cutting the island rock off from the mainland, let the bloodbath begin, the toy soldiers disappearing one by one with each murder, in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme on display above the mantelpiece.
Andrew Roberts has a cameo, West Country accent and all as Fred Narracott, delivering the guests to the island, before re-emerging as spiffing, fast-living, flippant Anthony Marston. Florence Poskitt’s outwardly level-headed but on-edge Vera Claythorne is welcoming guests on the Owens’ behalf; Mike Hickman’s devil-may-care Captain Philip Lombard likes to be seen keeping spirits up and his spirit intake up even higher.
What the butler saw or did he? Martyn Hunter’s Rogers and Jeanette Hunter’s Mrs Rogersin And Then There Were None
Andrew Isherwood soon sheds the dodgy accent of his cover as a wealthy South African, Davis, to be revealed as retired Detective William Henry Blore.
Ian Giles’s old boy, General MacKenzie, appears to be losing his marbles; Jessica Murray’s disapproving religious zealot Emily Brent knits feverishly, and Mark Simmonds’ Dr Armstrong is as earnest as brown bread.
Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave is wont to dominate, a judge by profession, with a permanent black-cap countenance and a voice that commands the stage and those around him alike.
Isherwood’s direction skilfully steers a path through dark humour, heightened tensions and chilling revelations, capturing Christie’s scathing dismissal of so many restrictive institutions, and his cast applies both light and increasing shade.
Ian Giles’s General MacKenzie holds forth in And Then There Were None as Florence Poskitt’s Vera Claythone looks on quizzically
Hickman’s mysterious Lombard is particularly good at keeping up a front; Poskitt may be associated with wide-eyed, squishy faced comedy but here delves into disturbing inner turmoil, a revelation that affirms she should not be pigeonholed.
Mulvihill, latterly flourishing in diverse roles beyond his musical theatre leading-man prowess, is in terrific form once more, his grave Wargrave judging everyone to damnation.
Will Nicholson and Adam Coggin’s lighting blends in just right with each scene’s tone and Readman’s scenery in Isherwood’s engrossing production that benefits from one other Readman decision: replacing the play’s happier ending with the novel’s original darker denouement, with permission from the Christie estate. Right again, Robert.
Performances: 7.30pm nightly, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster artwork for And Then There Were None
Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for September’s production of And Then There Were None at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
1939. Europe teeters on the brink of war. Eight strangers receive an intriguing invitation to a posh house party on Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast.
These house guests are to be met by the butler and his housekeeper wife…And Then There Were Ten, but not for long.
So begins Agartha Christie’s groundbreaking whodunit And Then There Were None, to be staged by York company Pick Me Up Theatre under Andrew Isherwood’s direction at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from September 22 to 30.
Grave expression:Rory Mulvihill, cast as Sir Lawrence Wargrave, the retired judge, in And Then There Were None
What the guests have in common is a wicked past that they are unwilling to reveal and a secret destined to seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. As the weather turns, the bloodbath begins and one by one they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme.
“Cut off from the mainland, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly, they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number,” says producer Robert Readman. “The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but also is preparing to strike again… and again.”
See Emily play up: Jess Murray, cast as “ruthlessly religious” knittijng fiend Emily Brent in And Then There Were None
Director Isherwood will be among Pick Me Up’s “fabulous cast of the county’s finest”, playing William Blore alongside Flo Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne; Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard; Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave; husband and wife Martyn and Jeannette Hunter’s butler Rogers and housekeeper wife Mrs Rogers; Andrew Roberts’s Anthony Marston; Ian Giles’s General John MacKenzie; Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong and Jess Murray’s Emily Brent.
Pick Me Up’s Facebook page is introducing Christie’s “motley characters” one by one in an on-going series. First up: meet Rory Mulvihill’s judge, Sir Lawrence Wargrave. “The Judge…you wouldn’t want to cross him,” forewarns Readman’s profile notes.
What the butler’s wife saw: Jeannette Hunter, picked to play housekeeper Mrs Rogers in Pick Me Up Theatre’s And Then There Were None
“Recently retired, he is intelligent, cold and commanding. During his years on the bench, he had a reputation as a ‘hanging judge’ – a judge who persuaded juries to bring back guilty verdicts and sentenced many convicted criminals to death. He should be right at home then.”
Next meet Jeanette Hunter’s Mrs Rogers. “She is the housekeeper in a big posh mansion where eight perfect strangers have been invited to spend the weekend by an unknown host. She is rather timid, has a dominating husband and she tells us she’s ‘always left to do the dirty work’,” says Readman.
Mysterious, confident, cunning: Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard
“And there’s plenty of it in And Then There Were None but take nothing at face value in this twisty tale of murder and revenge! Jeanette’s character might not be all she seems.”
Step forward dodgy character number three: Jess Murray’s Emily Brent. “She is a ruthlessly religious woman who reads her Bible every day,” says Readman. “She might devour the good book – but her actions are anything but Christian. And she knits – like those ghouls from the guillotine!”
Does Martyn Hunter’s butler Thomas Rogers look shifty? Find out from September 22 to 25
Next up: Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard. “A mysterious, confident and cunning man, we think he was maybe a mercenary soldier in Africa? Anyway, it looks like Mike Hickman isn’t about to take any prisoners in this role…Could he be the guilty one?” ponders Robert.
Who’s next? “Here comes Thomas Rogers…A respectable and reliable butler. Or is he? Don’t you think he looks a bit shifty? And Martin Hunter plays the part perfectly. Come and find out if he dunnit in Agatha Christie’s corking murder mystery,” says Robert.
Ian Giles’s General John Gordon McKenzie: “Upstanding”…or does that not stand up to appraisal?
How about Ian Giles’s General John Gordon Mackenzie? “He’s an upstanding military man – or is he?” asks Robert. “One of eight seemingly random guests invited to a mysterious house party in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, how could anyone think our Ian Giles could be the one wot dunnit?”
Who is Andrew Roberts playing? “This handsome devil (see below) is Anthony Marston: a rich, swanky guy who likes fast cars and fast living,” says Robert. “He seems to have no conscience but is he a murderer?”
If looks could kill…but is Andrew Roberts’s Anthony Marston the murderer in And Then There Were None
Back in York after an Edinburgh Fringe run in York musical comedy duo Fladam’s children’s show Green Fingers, Flo Poskitt takes the role of former governess Vera Claythorne, who comes to Soldier Island as secretary to fellow guest Mrs Owen.
“Flo’s Vera is clever and capable, but she is also super-nervy and suffers from attacks of hysteria, so don’t cross her off the murderer suspect list just yet,” says Robert.
“Clever and capable, but super-nervy too”: Flo Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None
“Don’t trust him – even though he’s a doctor,” he forewarns of any encounter with Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong. “The other seven guests certainly don’t. In fact Armstrong is high up the suspect list because – well, he knows media stuff, doesn’t he?! He could easily bump someone off (if he wasn’t always yearning after a large glass of scotch).
“So, is Mark Simmonds our man in And Then There Were None? If you’ve read Agatha Crhsistie’s book or seen the films, no spoilers please!”
High up on the suspect list: Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong
And now there are ten
INTRODCING retired Inspector William Henry Blore, director Andrew Isherwood ‘s on-stage contribution to And Then There Were None.
“He should know his way around a crime scene and be a dependable chap in a crisis – like the one ten strangers find themselves facing at a weird house party in Christie’s nail-biter,” says Robert. “But really…when the killing starts – is the former policeman your best hope?”
On closer inspection: Andrew Isherwood looks judgemental in his guise as retired Inspector William Henry Blore
Ten Little Soldiers: the back story of a sinister nursery rhyme
THIS epigraph appears at the start of Agatha Christie’s 1939 murder mystery novel, And Then There Were None, foretelling the ten deaths (spoiler alert!) that will occur on Soldier Island.
Ten Little Soldier Boys went out to Dine, one choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine Little Soldier Boys stayed up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight Little Soldier Boys travelling in Devon; One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.
Seven Little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six Little Soldier Boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five Little Soldier Boys going through a door; One stubbed his toe and then there were four.
Four Little Soldier Boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three Little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two Little Soldier Boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was One.
One Little Soldier Boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.
Did you know?
THE island and Art Deco hotel of the same name that inspired Agatha Christie to write both And Then There Were None and the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under The Sun are for sale at £15 million: namely Burgh Island, off the south Devon coast. The sale includes Christie’s beach house, where she wrote, on the cliff edge.
Pick Me Up Theatre in And Then There Were None, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 22 to 30. Performances: 7.30pm, September 22, 23, 26 to 30; 2.30pm, September 23, 24 and 30. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Recommended age: eight plus.
The wedding: Emily Belcher’s Emily Webb marries Frankie Bounds’s George Gibbs in a ceremony conducted by Rory Mulvihill’s Congregational Church minister, right, in Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town. Looking on, left, are Damian M O’Connor’s Constable Bill Warren and Charlotte Hewitson’s Rebecca Gibbs
RORY Mulvihill’s avuncular Stage Manager – a narrator, ringmaster, master of ceremonies and Cassandra rolled into one – talks of the stars “doing their old, old crisscross journeys” since four billion years ago.
You could call Thornton Wilder’s Our Town a time play, not in the manner of Bradford playwright J B Priestley’s Time Plays of the 1930s and 1940s, but because of the importance of time and using it well.
As director Bryan Bounds said afterwards: “The third act is the glass of water in the face to say, ‘Wake up, this is all going to be gone before you realise it’.”
Ironically, neither Mulvihill’s measured, mellifluous Stage Manager nor Wilder’s play, with its two intervals rather than the customary one, is in a particular hurry. The watch is ticking well past 10pm as we leave, more than two and a half hours after our arrival, but rest assured, time spent in the company of Wilder and “Yorkshire’s American theatre company” is time spent well indeed, particularly after that remarkable, rug-pulling third act.
Our Town has been called “America’s greatest play”, and while your reviewer does not have the time to debate that contention here, the likes of David Mamet and Edward Albee, no less, speak of this 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner that highly.
Advance publicity had suggested Amerrycan Theatre’s modern-dressed production was a very belated York premiere for Our Town, but it has since come to light that Rowntree Players presented it in the late 1950s, the actor who played young lead George Gibbs now in his 80s.
Nevertheless, that remains a long, long hiatus since its only York production, an act of neglect frankly. Not that you would feel that way after the gentle loosener of the first act, where Mulvihill leads a guided tour of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, population, 2,642.
Everyone knows everyone and their business in this little American town with its quietly competitive churches, railway, blanket factory and all-in-one town hall, post office and jail .
Wilder is presenting a microcosm of American life, much like Dylan Thomas’s portrait of the mythical Welsh seaside village of LLareggub in his 1954 radio drama Under Milk Wood, but Thomas’s play spanned only 24 hours, whereas Wilder’s three acts span 12 years from 1906 to 1918, rather than the original 1901 to 1913, in Bounds’s account with intervals of three years from Daily Life (May 7 1906) to Act Two’s Love and Marriage (July 7 1909) and nine more to Act Three’s Death and Eternity (Autumn 1918, originally Summer 1913).
A cast of 14 populates Our Town, some from York, others from Leeds and Harrogate, one born in Tasmania, Bounds originally from Temple, Texas, and his computer engineer friend, Thomas Miller, from southern Illinois, in his first foray into acting since university days. Just as we grow to know Wilder’s characters, an interval read of the programme profiles reveals plenty too, each accompanied by a black-and-white photograph from childhood days.
Our Town is deemed a radical play, not only in breaking down theatre’s fourth wall for Mulvihill to ask various (primed) audience members questions about Grover’s Corners, and in its lack of props and rudimentary scenery, but also in its bravura use of dead people – yes, you can see dead people a la The Sixth Sense – who rise from their graves to take seats to conduct Act Three from beyond.
Here, these dead souls of the cemetery discuss life’s transience, as Craig Kirby’s suicidal drunkard, the now late choirmaster Simon Stimson, scalds the living for their ignorance and bliss in Wilder’s bleaker, blacker version of Jaques’ monologue in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Bleaker still, they castigate the grieving George (spoiler alert) for wasting his time in visiting the graveyard.
Everything is milk and roses on the surface in Act One, even in the Sentinel newspaper run by the upright Mr Charles Webb (Andrew Isherwood), but gradually more than small-town gossip prevails. The women are not happy to be subservient; young Wally Webb (Harrison Turner-Hazel, a name for an actor if ever there were one!) must go off to war; symbolically, Kirby’s erratic Stimson tells the ladies of the Congregational Church choir (Jess Murray’s outstanding Mrs Myrtle Webb among them) that they sing too loudly.
At the play’s core is a love story, one of young lovers, neighbours George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), the sports jock, and Emily Webb (Emily Belcher), the brightest pupil at school. The Romeo and Juliet of Wilder’s world, their courtship scenes are a delight, but the marriage ceremony shocks: a forewarning of Act Three’s darkness to come. Bounds junior and Belcher are terrific in those scenes, and Belcher is better still in the play’s stark climax.
America’s greatest play? You decide, but your first decision should be to visit Our Town and its story of everyday life and the extraordinary in the ordinary, but hurry, it will soon be leaving town.
Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s York premiere of Our Town
AMERRYCAN Theatre, Yorkshire’s American theatre company, are staging the York premiere of “the greatest American play” from Tuesday (11/7/2023) to Saturday.
Thornton Wilder’s still hard-hitting Pulitzer Prize winner Our Town will be presented by an American and British cast of 18 in an immersive makeover at Theatre@41, Monkgate.
“If you are ready for serious, life-affirming theatre, this play is for you,” says Texas-born producer and founding artistic director Bryan Bounds. “An enduring American treasure and one of the greatest plays of world theatre, Our Town is as radical now as at its premiere in 1938.
“Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death, set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century, could happen just as easily in Pocklington.”
Eighty-five years after it shook the theatrical world, Our Town remains among the most performed plays in the United States and is considered to be the “greatest American play ever written” by Edward Albee, David Mamet and many other playwrights, while writer and theatre administrator Howard Sherman deems it to be “America’s first Shakespearean play”.
Wilder’s story follows the romance and marriage of Emily Webb (Emily Belcher) and George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), and through them, he reveals the hidden mysteries behind the smallest details of everyday life.
“This play seems so simple and yet it reminds us how fragile life can be and the need to celebrate each moment,” says Our Town director Bryan Bounds
“Given the advent of our digital age and its impact on our lives, now more than ever we need theatre to give us a stark experience that reminds us about the beauty of being alive, connecting with other people,” says Bryan. “This play seems so simple and yet it reminds us how fragile life can be and the need to celebrate each moment.”
Assessing what makes Our Town such a significant American work, actor, playwright and acting practitioner Bryan says: “At its debut in 1938, the play exploded the idea of what theatre was and what it could do. It’s still performed every week around the world because it goes against what [director] Peter Brook called ‘deadly theatre’ (i.e. soothing the audience into forgetting about life).
“This play is what he termed ‘holy theatre’, which shakes the audience up and reminds us what it is to be alive and how we can live life better.”
For all its ubiquity elsewhere, why has Our Town never been performed in York, Bryan? “It’s quite a gamble. It’s a very challenging, ambitious play for a theatre company to put on because it doesn’t fit into a neat category,” he says.
“It seems like it ought to be hokey and sentimental, but Edward Albee called it ‘one of the toughest plays ever written’, because in its story of Emily and George it pulls no punches. It’s ‘theatre for the mind’ and that takes an audience a while to sniff around the edges and book their ticket.”
Bryan first read Wilder’s play in high school, like many American teenagers. “But because I hadn’t experienced much of life, I admired its Pirandello influences but put it aside. But life made me keep pulling it back and exploring, so I saw several performances and each one changed my perceptions of life a little bit more,” he says.
Emily Belcher’s Emily Webb rehearsing a scene for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town
“My wife Deirdre was in tears at the end of a production that we saw in London some years ago. That’s when I knew York needed to experience it.”
Bryan runs Amerrycan Theatre from Huby, near Otley, in West Yorkshire. “I moved to Leeds in 1999 after falling in love with a Scouser while I was living in New York City (cue the violins!), and once I got over the culture shock, I saw that there were very few theatre companies producing great, niche works of American theatre – and few Yorkshire actors were getting the chance to sink their teeth into really delicious roles,” he says.
“So we put on Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and did very well at the Edinburgh Fringe with my play My Name Is Bill: An Afternoon With An Alcoholic.
“For Our Town, the cast is mostly made up of actors from Yorkshire – they’ve loved learning the accent – plus American actors, including Thomas Miller, a local cyber security genius from Illinois, and myself.”
In the Amerrycan Theatre pipeline for 2024 are Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winner Three Tall Women and Eugene O’Neill’s “towering masterpiece” The Iceman Cometh. “For that one, we’ll be transforming Theatre@41 into a seedy New York saloon from 1912,” says Bryan.
First up, Our Town. “Be prepared to laugh and cry with every emotion in between in. The cast promises to make the trip to Grover’s Corners a moving experience that’s immersive, tough, funny, heart-wrenching and uplifting,” the director concludes.
Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 11 to July 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
York stage stalwart Rory Mulvihill’s Stage Manager, centre, with Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs and Emily Belcher’s Emily Gibbs
Amerrycan Theatre’s cast for Our Town
The Stage Manager: RORY MULVIHILL
Dr Frank Gibbs: THOMAS MILLER
Howie Newsome: PATRICK GREGAN
Mrs Julia Gibbs: JULIET WATERS
Mrs Myrtle Webb: JESS MURRAY
George Gibbs: FRANKIE BOUNDS
Rebecca Gibbs: CHARLOTTE HEWITSON
Emily Webb: EMILY BELCHER
Wally Webb: HARRISON TURNER-HAZEL
Mr Charles Webb: ANDREW ISHERWOOD
Simon Stimson: CRAIG KIRBY
Mrs Louella Soames: NATALIE SMEATON
Constable Bill Warren: DAMIAN M O’CONNOR
Joe Stoddard: BRYAN BOUNDS
Creative team:
Producer & director: BRYAN BOUNDS Stage manager: EMMA POMFRETT Dramaturg: AMY TONES Music director: SAM JOHNSON Lighting designer: DUNCAN HANDS
Amerrycan Theatre: the back story
BASED in Huby, West Yorkshire, “Britain’s American theatre company” is devoted to showcasing the vitality of American drama in intimate productions.
From classics to contemporary drama, they stage American works seldom seen in Yorkshire and take productions to the Edinburgh Fringe, across Europe and the United States of America.
Amerrycan Theatre’s poster for the York premiere of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town
Our Town in 2023: Thoughts from Amerrycan Theatre dramaturg Amy Tones
“EIGHTY-FIVE years ago, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town debuted and was unanimously selected to receive the Pulitzer Prize for American Drama. Today, it continues to be one of the most produced American plays in the world.
“It has been said that there is at least one performance of Our Town on a stage every day some place in the world. How does this play continue to engage audiences from so many diverse backgrounds?
“The Stage Manager will tell you in minute detail, Our Town, Grover’s Corners, is a microcosm of life. From its opening moments, the play presents life, from birth to death, throwing together the mundane with the spectacular, in a simple examination of what it all means.
“The story unfolds on a bare stage with a few pieces of scenery and pantomimed props. When the play opened, this was a novel experience. Audience members would have been used to a play trying to mirror life, with a clear problem to be solved.
“What they got was a Stage Manager who conducts the actors through their moments and breaks the fourth wall to point out the minutia that won’t fit on the stage, continually reminding the audience that they are in a theatre, adjacent to reality, but separated. Instead of a clear conflict, they are invited to contemplate all the moments that make up life, from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
“From the beginning, as Dr Gibbs returns home from delivering twins – new life – the Stage Manager talks of Gibbs’s death and legacy. Life and death, hand in hand. We’re given the space to contemplate the importance of the everyday actions of living along with the elevated moments that burn bright in our memories.
Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs and Andrew Isherwood’s Mr Charles Webb, right, in discussion in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town
“Some have said it is the simplicity of the staging that drives the popularity of this play in a budget-conscious world. Others point out that its popularity in high school and college theatres stems from the training it offers young performers in communicating clearly despite the absence of things.
“Critics of the play assign it to the role of a ‘museum piece’, with nostalgia masking more important discussions of gender inequality, bigotry, or alcoholism that could have been addressed. While there may be some bit of validity to these arguments, they could not possibly account for its ongoing place of honour in theatrical canon.
“The meta-theatricality of the play forces us to focus not on what we see to understand, but on what we perceive. Our minds fill in what is not there based on our experiences. Watching the motions of breakfast being prepared without actual pans or food allows us to recall the sounds, smells, and tastes of our memories. Two ladders can become bedrooms in neighbouring houses on a moonlit night, distracting us from what we should be doing.
“The actors demonstrate their craft, while constantly reminding us that they are actors, and this is a play. Even the points that the critics wish had been addressed remind us this is not a museum, separated from our reality by time and place, but a place with which we can connect.
“At its heart, Our Town puts life on display from birth to death, with all of the wonderful, terrible moments in between, and invites all of us to experience them, reflect on them, and value them in our life and every life.”
Jake Botterell as Oliver Costello in Rowntree Players’ modern-day account of Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web
Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web, Rowntree Players, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm, 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
AGATHA Christie wrote Spider’s Web at the request of its star turn, Margaret Lockwood, during West End rehearsals for Witness For The Prosecution.
Now, director Howard Ella has “re-written” Christie’s 1954 murder mystery for Rowntree Players’ return to the stage after the pandemic hiatus.
More accurately, he has updated Christie’s manor-house setting of Copplestone Court to 2021, with cultural references to Harry Syles, Daniel Radcliffe and the local Aldi, a Nike bag and trainers for dodgy Oliver Costello and a photographic portrait of lady of the house Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, rather than an austere oil painting.
At the same time, a butler in formal attire, a rather old-school child with hair clips, a protective guardian, an eccentric gardener and games of bridge evoke the earlier era, while Graham Smith’s Hugo Birch appears to be dressed for a shooting party.
There are worse crimes – often in a Christie story – than tampering with a text, and Ella’s decision is born as much out of necessity as in the spirit of fun that pervades Agatha’s second most-performed play.
Ella’s production ends up with a foot in both camps, rather than in no man’s land, as do his cast’s accents, but the dialogue stubbornly betrays its Fifties’ roots, like that tell-tale tramline of black in bleached blonde hair.
In the absence of programme notes and indeed a programme – another concession to Covid times, with only a cast list available – Ella explained his reasoning afterwards in response to a late-night CharlesHutchPress email question: “Was there a reason for the modern setting? Was it to do with costume non-availability after the Rowntree Players’ store fire?”
Martyn Hunter’s permanently concerned guardian, Sir Rowland Delahaye
“It was less about the store fire but more about Covid and costumes and control,” Ella responded. “Both from a costume and a propping point of view. Very dull but a necessary evil in these times.
“It actually was a decision when we thought we could perform in early 2021. But it pushed and pushed.
“I like the idea of playing it contemporary, although, of course, the challenge sits in balancing that against how faithful you should be to the original dialogue.”
So that clears that up. Now, to the play, wherein diplomat’s wife Clarissa (Gemma McDonald) is spinning tales of adventure and stepdaughter Pippa (Katelyn Banks) is permanently hungry and restless but tired.
Guardian Sir Rowland Delahaye (Martyn Hunter), fellow old sport Hugo Birch (Smith) and young buck Jeremy Warrender (Andrew Roberts) are passing the time, trying to identity different glasses of port in a taste test, waiting for dinner at the nearby golf club, although Warrender looks strangely interested in trying locate a drawer in the desk.
Craig Kirby’s sonorous, stone-faced butler, Elgin, is doing what impenetrable butlers used to do; Jeannette Hunter’s perky, if mysterious, Mildred Peake keeps traipsing in from the garden.
Clarissa’s husband, the something-hush-hush-at-the-Foreign-Office Henry (Rory Mulvihill), has to pop out to a meeting. In pops Jake Botterell’s malevolent Oliver Costello, up to no good with a vow to take Pippa away to her flaky mother.
Spinning stories like a spider’s web: Gemma McDonald’s Clarissa Hailsham-Brown
Suddenly, there’s murder on the drawing-room floor, but whodunit and how does far-fetched fantasist Clarissa cover it up? Desperate to dispose of the body before Henry arrives with a very important politician, she enlists the help/hindrance of her house guests .
Enter the detective, in this particular case Mark McDonald’s heavily-bearded, somewhat heavy-handed Inspector Lord, a wry, if blunter, instrument of interrogation than Christie’s Poirot, assisted by the frank Constable Jones (Sara Howlett, lovely Welsh accent et al).
Christie revels in a “conscious parody of the detective thriller”, leavening all the familiar tropes with knowing humour, while still tightening the suspense ever tauter, albeit over a long stretch of nearly three hours, replete with dropped clues and plot contrivances aplenty.
Add drug addiction, ham sandwiches, invisible ink, a very valuable rare stamp, a secret drawer, a hidden doorway and an unusual corner-turn for a second stage entrance, and Ella oversees a spirited production full of heightened drama, humorous confrontations and murky mystery.
Hunter, Mulvihill, Smith and Kirby are the ballast; Hunter is comedy gold; McDonald and Howlett form a resourceful double act; Roberts could have escaped from a Noel Coward comedy, and the menacing Botterell and precocious Banks bring freshness to the Players’ ranks.
In the lead role, Gemma McDonald’s Clarissa is full of fun and games, but has a few hiccups with her mountain of intricately-spun lines that hopefully will not repeat on her tonight and tomorrow.
Suffused with surprises, some new to Christie’s story, this modern-day yet retro Spider’s Web makes for an enjoyable evening’s entanglement.
