Writers: Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks
Director: Mark Bell
It’s a dark and stormy night (isn’t it always in a classic murder mystery?) in October 1968.
Annabel Scarlett (Ellie Leach) is at Graveney Manor, Cliffhanger, West Sussex, to renovate faded and failing rock star Rick Black’s ( Liam Horrigan) crumbling pile under the watchful eye of his wife Mrs. Peacock (Hannah Boyce) (still using her previous married name). Old band mates Professor Alex Plum (Edward Howells) and Reverend Hal Green (Gabriel Paul) arrive on the doorstep lured by Black who is looking to revive the old band and hopefully his finances. Added in to the mix are Rick’s manipulative manager Colonel Mustard (Jason Durr), meddling house-keeper Mrs. White (Dawn Buckland) and actor Wadsworth perennially cast as a butler (Jack Bennett). All the familiar elements of the classic board game come to life on stage in Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s Cluedo 2: The Next Chapter,and nothing and no-one is quite as it seems.
Marks and Gran’s script writing pedigree is almost unmatched, with Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, The New Statesman and Shine on Harvey Moon to name a few. This coupled with director Mark Bell, whose own pedigree includes the global smash The Play That Goes Wrong. It also can’t hurt that the board game on which it is all based has sold over 150 million copies and the public’s never-ending desire for nostalgia. It has so much promise, but does it deliver?
To be clear this is old-school farce and not a classic murder mystery, so those hoping for a creepy and clever Agatha Christie style crime drama will be sorely disappointed.
The first act is slow to build and the heightened, almost panto-style of acting takes a bit of warming to (they do stray into actual pantomime tropes in the second act). The second act fares better as the pace picks up, but there is a repeated and prolonged chase around the house scene that stretches the already thin plot even thinner. You can see that director Bell has tried to incorporate elements of the successful Play That… series but it isn’t as clever or original as that.
There is fun to be had though: in seeing how designer David Farley has realised the rooms and spotting references to the infamous weapons. There’s word play, slapstick, ventriloquism (one of the funniest scenes), a running gag about Al Green and plenty of lyrics from some of the biggest hits of the 60s to identify. The actual ending too is highly entertaining.
The backdrop of David Farley’s set is a picture of the manor house superimposed over the classic game board. The furniture and set dressing is danced in and out by the cast and while amusing at first, it begins to feel like time filling by the second act.
The stand-outs of the cast are Jack Bennett who is pitch-perfect as actor/mistaken-for-the-butler Wadsworth whose timing and classic comic acting work ideally with the material and Dawn Buckland as the sassy house-keeper Mrs. White, with a sack full of one-liners and a few secrets under her pinafore.
Many, who wish for their comedy with a whiff of nostalgia will adore it. It very much feels as if the writing is from another era, and not the 1960s in which it is set, those looking for something cleverer might be best to look else where.
Runs until 8 June 2024 | Image: Alastair Muir
The Reviews Hub Score
Old-fashioned farce
