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Cast
Tim Charrington,
Darren Cheek,
Leda Hodgson &
Aimée Thackray
Directed By Hank Turnbull
Tim & Leda
Everyone who saw this show had a great time. We had wonderful feed
back from the audience and terrific reviews. The cast really got into it and
thoroughly enjoyed their many parts. Top ratings from the Edinburgh Guide, 3
stars from three weeks (having said it scared her to death) and a very good
positive review from Timothy Ramsden from reviewsgate.com
theatre review
Audience With Murder
Theatre Maketa
I was so scared at one point during this show, I nearly wet my pants, so
lord knows how the old folks in the audience managed to keep it together. If
you'd have been locked in the back of a van with a woman being tortured
Tarantino style and a knife-wielding lunatic on the rampage, you'd be
bricking it too.
THIS amusing, Russian
doll of a play is written with flair by Colin Wakefield and Roger Leach and
performed by a solid cast.
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Festivals: AUDIENCE WITH MURDER. To 29 August.
_POSTEDON 2004-09-02 09:46:11 by
Timothy Ramsden |
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 Edinburgh
AUDIENCE WITH MURDER
by Colin Wakefield and Roger Leach
Theatre Maketa at Theatre Truck To 29 August 2004
2pm & 5pm
Runs 1hr 40min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 August
The venue is the star in this moving new drama.
The venue is indeed a truck, converted into a 40-seat theatre. A small
stage behind the driver’s cab faces 10 raked rows with 2 seats either
side an aisle; then there’s just enough space for a stage manager
controlling light and sound before reaching the rear exit. Devised by
long-time Cheek by Jowl luminary Nick Kidd, the vehicle is intended to
take theatre to places where audiences might potentially number – well,
up to 40.
It’s surprisingly comfortable, and air-conditioned. Among this initial
trucking programme the most ample item is a piece of hokum in the post-Sleuth
thriller style. Playing games with audience expectations, it’s crammed
with sudden changes of perspective. All good fun, though the writers’
method for changing our perceptions becomes rather familiar.
Hokum has its audience, offering the illusion of everyday reality while
getting away with outrageous implausibilities. It’s theatrical fare at
many seaside summer shows, for example – not only the south-coast resort
(with its own theatre) for which the ultimate play-within-a-play here is
destined. The fun lies in the skill with which the implausibilities are
arrayed.
And this production moves from a very funny opening scene, where the
initial characters are reading a novice writer’s script (based with
increasing transparency on her home life) to a literally dark conclusion
where the firearms come out in an empty theatre. Here the venue comes
into its own as voices echo round the truck and characters clatter close
up to us.
Ironically, despite its novel venue this is (for all its traditional
dramatic elements) less ‘traditional’ Fringe material than the kind of
thing for more conservative audiences which might have half-filled
Edinburgh’s large King’s Theatre during the winter. It would need big TV
names there. But it’s doubtful they’d provide better performances than
here.
True, Darren Cheek’s gum-chewing, very youthful, detective is hard to
swallow (the plot struggles several times with its age relationships).
But Cheek is excellent as the bullied ex-pupil, as is Tim Charrington as
a bullying teacher. Leda Hodgson and Aimee Thackray equal them as
assertive or shy females, often with secrets of their own.
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