This evening I was at Salford's Lowry Theatre for a tongue-in-cheek lampooning of Agatha Christie's 'Death On The Nile' and similar stories in that same genre. Most irritatingly the company did not have any programmes or even cast lists of any sort available - and they are on a UK-wide tour to major venues! And so I have had to scour the internet to find the names of cast etc that I need in order to complete this review. However, even as a normal audience member, I would have greatly appreciated (as indeed many others would have too), some form of programme prior to the commencement of the play.
The company is 'New Old Friends', and the farce that presented itself to us was performed by just four - three of whom multi-roled the whole time, playing an array of OTT characters based on and around the Christie style, whilst the Belgian detective of Hercule Poirot had metamorphosed into a French lady detective by the name of Artenis Arinae, whose only similarity to Poirot was that she kept referring to her brain as 'little grey cells'. The four were (although I still have no idea who was who!), Kirsty Cox, Frances Keyton, Oliver Malam, and Ben Thornton.
However, putting my disgruntlement to one side, the play was a joy! For anyone who is a fan of the classic murder mystery genre especially Agatha Christie, and also love a good giggle, then this play is most definitely for you. With saucy puns, clever and witty dialogue, imaginative and choreographed physical mayhem and character changes, the four cast members make full use of a very simple and yet ingenious set design [the deck of a Nile cruise ship].
I did feel at times the 'set pieces' of dialogue were overlong and simply not as funny as they could have been, and if these had been shortened then the play would have been the better for it; and some of the jokes simply didn't land either. But the one thing which I found the most difficult to understand was Arinae's cod French accent. It was at times too thick and so unenunciated that I simply had to guess what she had said. Obviously she had based her accent on a character from 'Allo, 'Allo, (she sounded exactly like her at times), but the accent did not carry across the rows of theatre seats I'm afraid.
That being said though, the whole concept of this madcap adventure was cleverly executed and there were times when I was laughing quite loudly. The denouement was not slick enough, and the end was very much an anti-climax, but that is to do with the writer and director, not the cast. All-in-all, this was a jolly jape of a show which didn't require too much investment from the audience to be able to enjoy and laugh along with this parody of such a famous genre / authress / novel. Very enjoyable.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 26.9.21
I did feel at times the 'set pieces' of dialogue were overlong and simply not as funny as they could have been, and if these had been shortened then the play would have been the better for it; and some of the jokes simply didn't land either. But the one thing which I found the most difficult to understand was Arinae's cod French accent. It was at times too thick and so unenunciated that I simply had to guess what she had said. Obviously she had based her accent on a character from 'Allo, 'Allo, (she sounded exactly like her at times), but the accent did not carry across the rows of theatre seats I'm afraid.
That being said though, the whole concept of this madcap adventure was cleverly executed and there were times when I was laughing quite loudly. The denouement was not slick enough, and the end was very much an anti-climax, but that is to do with the writer and director, not the cast. All-in-all, this was a jolly jape of a show which didn't require too much investment from the audience to be able to enjoy and laugh along with this parody of such a famous genre / authress / novel. Very enjoyable.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 26.9.21
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