AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Death By Design - The Hippodrome Theatre, Todmorden.

The ideas behind the conception of this play were intriguing to say the least; a New York playwright commissioned by a Texas Theatre company to write a play set in England blending the styles of two of the most quintessentially 20th century English writers – Noel Coward and Agatha Christie. This was a murder mystery set an upper-class English household, in essence a homage to both the genres and an observation of English high society in the mid-20th century period.

The Todmorden Hippodrome theatre was used to full effect with an ambitious set that included an unusually high staircase and a landing running the full width of the stage; very much a large country house with plenty of attention to detail and numerous entrances. The costuming included many of the items familiar to fans of Noel Coward such as flowing silk dressing gowns, ostentatious hats and flamboyant dresses and waistcoats. Agatha Christie fans would have recognised some of the usual suspects, the black & white clad maid, the uniformed chauffer, a pipe-smoking gentleman, the sophisticated lady about town and a theatrical eccentric. In common with many, if not most, country house murder mysteries, London was never far away with characters regularly having just come from the city or making plans to visit it soon, but an array of greens through the French windows ensured the image of a rural location.

The entire play was a continuous action piece, the second act commencing at the precise second the first act ended. This helped ensure a consistent pace, progressively increasing as the plot developed. Most of the first act was in the natural Coward world of frivolous living and superficial relationships, but with class distinctions given a bit emphasis than in most of Coward’s works (perhaps because, beneath the surface, this was an American observation?) 

An interesting addition to the mix was Eric, an arts-obsessed oddball who had escaped from a psychiatric hospital, almost echoing Renfield in the Dracula story. His unkempt appearance contrasted well with the well-dressed characters as well as helping to satirise the overt esteem with which theatre was viewed (at least in certain circles) at the time; a touch Coward would surely have approved of (the playwright Edward and his actress-wife Sorel each seen to take their own art far too seriously).

The play started at a leisurely pace with under-the-surface tensions slowly emerging until eventually there was a murder, at which point motives for most of the remaining cast were established. There was not the on-going ‘who was going to be next?’ tension as in Christie classics such as ‘The Mousetrap’ or ‘Ten Little Indians’ and once the lengthy whodunnit investigations started, no-one seemed in any real danger. For a time this got a little tedious but there were some genuinely surprising twists at the end, with Urbinati having quite effectively brought the play back being a standard Christie Murder Mystery and back into the realm of a Coward comedy.

This was a very confident production by TAODS, an accomplished amateur theatre company. Ceri Garnett was well cast as high-society actress Sorel Bennett with Joe Marsden playing her husband with gusto as a cross between Basil Fawlty and Terry Thomas. Kelly Parker as Victoria Van Roth brought an element of farce of vaudeville to the play in sharp contrast to Joe Marsden who was suitably out-of-place as a stuffy M.P. Daniel Mugan as the roughly-dressed Eric gave a superb performance, in a way filling a role like Baldrick in Blackadder. Baldrick's obsession was turnips but for Eric, it was images of Gertrude Lawrence! This was an enjoyable night out and an interesting choice of play.

Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 14.6.23