Writer: Torben Betts
Director: Philip Franks
In the third instalment of his comedic, ’whodunnit’ trilogy, writer Torben Betts reunites with director Philip Franks, actress Susie Blake and production company Original Theatre (in association with Theatr Clwyd) to bring their unique brand of farcical pandemonium to Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre.
Treading the boards with Blake this opening night is Rufus Hound as her son-in-law Darius Divine, aka Peter, spiritual medium extraordinaire and returning host of the paranormal tv programme The Other Side. Sarah Lawn plays Divine’s Agent wife Susannah, Beth Lilly, his estranged daughter Jen, and Aisha Jawando, his pregnant mistress, Laura. Andy McLeod is Laura’s abusive and cuckolded husband, Jason. All of the aforementioned are ably assisted by Oliver Byng and Maddy Banks in supporting roles.
Sporting an impressive handlebar moustache, Peter awakens on the couch of Colin Falconer’s salubrious set. The sage green farmhouse-style kitchen and living area is made cosy with a country range, cushions, a christmas tree, hanging coats and other homely accouterments (I’d love it myself!). A dining table is laid for four. The self-styled clairvoyant is just beginning to rehearse opening lines for his highly anticipated comeback show when there is banging on the door.
Enter Laura, Peter’s recently ditched, angry and expectant lover. He had “used” “and then binned her” and she now wants her pound of flesh. 50 grand should cover it. An increasingly agitated Peter agrees to a negotiated pay-off, if only to be rid of this messy business before his wife lands home. Added to which, Peter’s aggrieved grown-up daughter, “never Jennifer, always Jen” will arrive imminently all the way from Australia. He has not seen her since she was five years old and nothing, or no-one, is going to spoil his plans for reconciliation. Too late – Susannah drives up and Laura is shoved under the table to hide.
Chaos ensues when Peter’s “wife, agent, producer” and “rock, for decades”, breezes into the room laden down with the finest champagne, wine and ingredients for Jen’s celebratory, welcome dinner. When Laura pops up to claim her discarded handbag and phone, a confused Susanne assumes she is Sylvie, a French chef supplied by the caterers, and the characters fall ‘Fawlty Towers-esquely’ into line.
Throw in an utterly hilarious, all singing-all dancing, Gilbert and Sullivan and wine loving mother-in-law into the mix, along with a surly but droll twenty-something Antipodean, a murder, hair-raising ghostly goings-on, a vengeful husband, all tied up with a marvellous twist, and you have the recipe for a first-rate play.
Blake as Miriam is simply superb. From the moment she emerges onstage ‘a`pas de loup’, warbling The Mikado’s “Three Little Maids from School”, we are enthralled by her. “Would she like a drink?” – “Do bears shit in the woods?”, “Is Penzance over-run with pirates?” She is undoubtedly the production’s linchpin. Hound is a thoroughly convincing chancer, attempting to eschew his philandering past in order to keep the wife who “has crafted like hell” to help him claw “his way back” to a television career, and also to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his daughter.
Jawando, Lawn, Lilly and McLeod’s performances are similarly accomplished. Everyone works energetically to fuel the momentum and no lines are lost despite the frenetic pace. Comedic mechanics are precise and rapid fire. Spellbindingly atmospheric special effects from John Bulleid, enhanced by lighting designed by Jason Taylor and sound by Max Pappenheim have us at the edge of our seats.
Conversely, Susannah’s lengthy dialogue where she outlines her fears and insecurities as the aging wife of a “randy old goat”, feels belaboured. Sometimes less is more. An audience is well capable of grasping matters sufficiently via subtext and action.
Proceedings conclude with Miriam singing from the fictional Emperor of Japan’s comic aria A More Humane Mikado. In this highly entertaining, if bonkers instance, Peter, aka Darius Divine, suffers the poetic justice of a punishment perfectly befitting of his crimes. It is deeply satisfying.
Runs Until 17 Oct 2026.
