There is nothing like a really good murder mystery and the opening play in the “Murder in the Park” season at the Devonshire Park Theatre, A Party to Murder, is, sadly, nothing like a really good murder mystery!
Set on Halloween night, in a creepy cottage full of secret passages, on a deserted island, in the middle of an American lake, during a thunderstorm, with no possible means of contacting the mainland, this play provides a very suitable home for just about every known thriller cliche.
The characters in the play are a group of extremely wealthy individuals, who meet each Halloween to act out a murder mystery game and it is this scene that opens the show.
Konrad – who has the most unlikely German accent, Evelyn – the model, Father Gerry Merryweather who needs no explanation and Mrs McKnight – a carbon copy of Acorn Antiques Mrs Overall, are all attending a seance, led by O’Karma – the stereotyped mystic psychic, which also features Ernie, a corpse – the best actor in the scene.
Mercifully the scene ends fairly quickly and then we meet the characters behind the characters, British mystery author Charles, and the Americans, owner of 147 companies Elwood, his lady friend McKenzie, ex football star but now a wheelchair user Willy and sisters Valerie and Henri (short for Henrietta).
The plot, so far as it goes, slowly unfolds but, in a show that runs for less than two hours, that process is far too slow and it is only in the final scene before the interval that there is any sign of a murder, although there have been a huge number of differing American accents to keep us looking for clues as to exactly where they are supposed to represent.
Act two is, as one would expect, a series of twists and turns but these dramatic changes of direction are punctuated by laughter from the audience. Not gentle chuckles at the occasional humorous line, but belly-laughs that might be more associated with a farce than an edge-of-the-seat thriller – and not always where they were intended to happen!
The acting seems to be a hybrid of Crossroads and Eldorado and, for the most part, is almost as wooden as the set but there is some good news for the next three productions in the season, the bar has not been set very high.
** Two Stars
