Chilling on a Summer Night

A MURDER HAS BEEN ARRANGED

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Tuesday 16^th July, 2013

 

The Ian Dickens Summer Season draws to a close with this fourth offering, an effective chiller from 1930 by Emlyn Williams.   It plays out like a murder mystery, typical of that genre, but there is a supernatural element to proceedings that turn it into a ghost story towards the end.

The plot concerns an unusual party that takes place on stage of an empty theatre, rented for the occasion of Lord Jasper’s 50^th birthday.  According to the terms of a will, if he can survive until 11 pm, he stands to inherit a couple of million quid.  Lord Jasper is something of an expert in all things occult and the theatre is reputed to have its own ghostly apparitions – hence his choice of location.  Also in the running is Jasper’s only surviving relative, a mystery man who will inherit if the old boy doesn’t make it to midnight…

It’s a creaky old plot but once it’s up and running you go along for the ride, thanks to the performances by a strong ensemble of players.  Paul Lavers is dashing and flamboyant as genial eccentric Sir Jasper with Nicola Weeks very good as his young bride.  It seems to me Weeks is more suited to these period roles than some of the more contemporary comedies I’ve seen her in.  The bride’s mother is the marvellous Anita Harris, looking glamorous and elegant, balancing superciliousness and desperation, as she tries to protect her daughter’s interests.  Also in the mix is handsome young hero Jimmy North (the likeable Mark Martin) who worms his way into the party – as a character, he fizzles out in that he is not part of bringing the murderer to light, but that’s all part of how Emlyn Williams plays with the genre.  I was impressed by Karen Ford as Mrs Wragg, a character part of strung-together colloquialisms, managing to keep on the right side of gor-blimey; she adds a touch of levity to proceedings and also helps to build the spooky atmosphere.  Poppy Meadows adds to the tension as jumpy Miss Groze, although we discover the reason for her nervousness is nothing to do with the theatre ghost…

Of course, the mysterious relative shows up.  Oliver Mellor dominates his scenes as Maurice Mullins, whose camp, extrovert exterior masks a Machiavellian heart, playing him with energy but keeping the melodramatic elements of the role toned down somewhat.  Any pretence at a whodunit is swept away and the play shifts gear.  Supernatural elements are brought to bear to expose the killer – like Banquo’s ghost at the dinner table.  Directors Ian Dickens and David North crank the tension slowly and play the dramatic irony to the utmost but the first appearance of the ‘Woman’ (Melissa Thomas) could do with being a touch more unworldly.  Good use is made of silence (when the audience is not coughing itself inside out, that is!) and Steve Chambers’s sound design adds to the sense of foreboding very effectively.

It’s an old-fashioned piece, a little longwinded in places, but it’s handled well and bears up in this day and age when we are more accustomed to flashier special effects and faster-moving stories.

A Season Has Been Arranged

SUMMER PLAY SEASON LAUNCH 2013

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Thursday 30^th May, 2013

 

It has become something of an annual tradition for the Grand to house a month’s worth of plays from Ian Dickens Plays, four weeks of varied fare including, of course, the obligatory murder mystery!  The season kicks off on Tuesday 25^th June with Simon Brett’s comedy Murder In Play (which I caught in Malvern last night – read my review here).

Before the launch began, I had a chat with the actor Dean Gaffney.

Dean Gaffney

Congratulations; it’s a very funny show.

DG. Thank you very much.

I’ve seen you in a few things; I think the last one was in Derby…

DG. Ah, yes…

I saw it before the fateful night (In January Dean’s car got up close and personal with the central reservation of the A38) So are you all recovered from that now?

DG. Yes, I mean at the time it was – something like that happens and you think, Am I going to work again?  The nicest thing, as you can probably tell, now is the scar has healed quite a lot and it’s only been four months – so I’m very lucky to be here.

Because I wondered, Has he read my review?  Is that what’s driven him off the road?

DG. Ah, funny!

Did you approach Murder in Play differently to the previous one?

DG.  The previous one is an Agatha Christie so it’s very stylised; it’s very stuck in the 1920s and 30s, and it has to be… you know.  So many people love Agatha Christie – which I found when I did an Agatha Christie about four years ago.

I saw that one as well. The Uninvited Guest?

DG. The Unexpected Guest.  That was a different character – that was someone who had learning difficulties.  The thing about Agatha Christie is that they all come in their droves to see it.  Everyone loves a murder mystery and no one does it better than Agatha Christie.

There is a line in the play, isn’t there, he (Director Boris) says touring audiences will come to see anything with ‘murder’ in the title.

DG. That’s right.  And I think with this one, you’ve got the play-within-the-play, very stylised back in the 1920s, but when you come back into real time, it’s nice to be a bit more casual, a bit more, you know, not so R.P.  So yes, it’s a very different play.  I have a lot more lines in this one I have to say but there’s more … you can relax a little bit more.  Because it’s a comedy as well, I enjoy it more.  I loved doing the Agatha Christie but there’d be times when you’ll be doing a scene and you’ll go, I’ve got another hour and a half!  But the good thing about the comedy is it just flows.

Yeah, you’ve got to keep the pace up otherwise it will fall flat.  I enjoyed your twitch, your tic.

DG. Thank you.

Is there something you really want to do? A role you’d like to tackle?

DG. That’s a good question.  I did a play about four years ago that Alastair McGowan wrote called Timing and that was in the King’s Head in London – it’s a pub theatre but it’s a very prestigious one and there was only 30 to 40 seats so they’re literally on top of you.  So that was interesting, but I’d love to do something like James Corden did, Two Guv’nors.  I’d love to do something where people walk away from the theatre and go, Wow! That’s different than what that person’s been known for.  And I think the hardest thing about the business is you only get that when they know you can do it.  You can only prove that you can do it when you get it.  It’s that thing when someone who’s say, homeless, can’t get a job because they haven’t got an address but how can they get an address if they haven’t got a job?  Sometimes you’re stuck in a rut there but the more that you do things – plays like this, plays that people get to see – slowly but surely, hopefully, that door will open. 

I was thinking about people who like to do Shakespeare, to be taken seriously, to prove that they’ve got the chops to do it.  Have you ever had any kind of leanings towards that?

DG. I love things when they’re modern, i.e. on film – what Baz Luhrmann does with Romeo and Juliet.  I love stuff that’s brought into this era and I think James McAvoy did something recently that’s a bit trendier, and I think if it was something like that, I’d love to do it.  It think if it was straight Shakespeare it would frighten me a bit, and I think that’s when people know whether you’re bloody good or not.  I think you have to have confidence in yourself but I wouldn’t want to be hung out there like that.

You’ve already done some Beckett, haven’t you?

DG. I did Waiting For Godot. It was my first job – with Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and that was good because I was fourteen; I didn’t know what acting was, Jesus!  I was barely out of nappies!  But to learn the craft from two legends like that!  My first job in the West End of London!

Looks great on the C.V.!

DG. Yeah!  To walk around in the middle of that! Obviously I still had my mum and dad with me, but at that age to be working professionally in the West End!

Do you still get called ‘Robbie’?

DG. God, yeah.  The thing about EastEnders is that it’s such a powerful show.  People always say to me, Ooh, do you get recognised in Sainsbury’s? And it’s like you get recognised everywhere!  It’s just part of being in that show.  And I think, yes of course, it dwindles, but I think that show’s so powerful even in 20 years if we were sat here, you’d still be asking the same question, because you’ll never lose it.  There’s certain characters that I might say to you and you’d go, Who are they? But there are certain characters within EastEnders that you’ll never forget.

It’s like Katy Manning’s character in the play.  She’s got this past in a soap that she keeps on about.

DG. Exactly!  That’s the thing about this: people like yourself and actors or people in the business come and see it and they get it.  Some people might go, Why is this old man talking about Richard Burton? In our profession, that’s exactly what the older generation do.

I also managed to grab a few moments with Dean’s former EastEnders colleague Gemma Bissix, also known for her role as glamorous villain Claire in Hollyoaks.

Gemma Bissix

GB. I think I’ve seen you before.

Have you?

GB. Here, a couple of years ago, at a thing like this.

(I didn’t disillusion her but it must have been some other hunk).

I saw the play last night.  Congratulations, it’s very funny!

GB. Thank you!

And well done – it falls to you to turn detective and deliver great swathes of explanation – especially in the second half.

GB. Yes, it’s unusual for a character like mine to have that function.  Usually it’s a Miss Marple or a policeman.

I thought it’s a bit of shame that you don’t get to have as much fun with your characterisation as some of the others do, because you have to play it straight, so that we get all the information we need.

GB.  Yes.  I’m kind of – I’m kind of the cement that holds it together.

This isn’t the first season of this type you’ve been involved with.

GB.  No, I was in  Dry Rot as the maid – and it was such a – it was so nice to play something that was desexualised, you know, because Hollyoaks is so glam, very kind of slinky dresses –

Lipstick and heels!

GB. Absolutely! And to actually play that, to desexualise it completely, and people laugh at you, I find it great.

It shows that sometimes the old plays, they still work.

GB. Oh, absolutely.

You don’t have to be all experimental and controversial.

GB. I think sometimes what an audience needs is that slapstick stuff, they want that, and the farcical kind of thing, and that’s what I think Murder in Play does, even though as you’ve said it’s a Noises Off kind of feel, it’s got that farcical kind of thing to it, hasn’t it?  When they’re coming in and out of the doors…

You’ve got to keep the balloon in the air, haven’t you?

GB. David Callister who plays the director and Richard Tate who plays Harrison, they’ve got such a great double act going on, and it’s not something you might expect from this play at the start but they are – that’s what works, and everybody empathises with different characters – That’s what I love about this play – just silly things – but that’s what I think the audience want nowadays; they just want light relief.  Unless you want to go and see a serious piece like the Agatha Christie that we did – but I think lots of people just want – they come out in the evening – not so far as pantomime season is panto and that’s for adults and children but I do think there is such a big market for farce now because people just want to come and be entertained.

And it’s also thrilling to see something that’s so skilful being pulled off because if farce doesn’t work, there’s nothing worse.

GB. It’s terrible! Oh my goodness!

You’ve got to have the timing.

GB. Or then it’s not funny. Absolutely.

Both actors were then called up to the stage along with Murder In Play co-star Katy Manning and director and producer of the season, Ian Dickens.  The good people of Wolverhampton were not shy in asking pertinent and searching questions.

Question Time. Katy Manning, Ian Dickens, Gemma Bissix, Dean Gaffney

Ian Dickens is clearly passionate about his company’s work and spoke frankly and with good humour about the issues raised.  Here is just a sample from that Q&A session.

Q. How do you feel when a theatre is half full – or half empty?

ID. Sad – it means I’m not earning as much!  I work on audience figures of about 40 -50 % capacity in order to bring shows in on budget.  We need to improve the culture in this society of young people coming into the theatre.

KM. Back in the 70s places like this were absolutely packed.

She went on to suggest that people bring youngsters to the theatre as birthday or Christmas presents.

GB. It’s about educating young people, to get them away from reality programmes.

ID. Musicals have made drama the poor relation.  What we have to establish is plays as part of a mix of what a theatre presents.

GB. Plays are considered sort of old-fashioned, because they’re not on television any more.

The discussion – and I hope it’s reported elsewhere – also considered topics such as the state of training of actors and how that has become a business, with the weaker students not being directed into careers more suited to their abilities.  There is a difference between wanting to be famous and doing the job for the love of doing it.

The live broadcasts to cinema from the National Theatre were also discussed, leading to consideration of what a national theatre should and shouldn’t be doing, in Ian Dickens’s view.

On the whole it was a fascinating and rewarding session, going beyond a publicity stunt to entice us back to see the season of plays.

For the record that season comprises:

Murder in Play by Simon Brett – hilarious play-within-a-play

June 25th – 29th

Steaming by Nell Dunn – famous all-female play set in a Turkish bath in London, with ‘some nudity’ starring Rebecca Wheatley and Kim Taylforth

July 2nd – 6th

The Trouble With Old Lovers by Angela Huth – Ian Dickens’s favourite of the bunch, a great observation of a couple who have each been a bit naughty in the past, starring Peter Amory and Nicola Bryant

July 9th – 13th

A Murder Has Been Arranged by Emlyn Williams – a ghost story set in a theatre starring Anita Harris and Oliver Mellor.

July 16th – 20th

The plays are visiting other theatres before and after their time in Wolverhampton.

The Wolverhampton season runs from Tuesday 25^th June until Saturday 20^th July.