Murdered to Death

A perfectly pitched send-up of the Agatha Christie style murder mystery.

I saw the Tabs/ Theatre Royal Nottingham production of Peter Gordon’s ‘Murdered to Death’ at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne on Tuesday 4th September 2024. It continues until 7th September.

Each of the characters is a comedy stereotype of a stock Agatha Christie character including Bunting, a somewhat truculent butler, Miss Maple, an amateur sleuth who seems to attract murder, a bumbling and forgetful colonel, a French art dealer and his catty paramour and a bumbling police Inspector, who combined Clouseau with Mrs Malaprop on hyperdrive.

Of course, few of the characters were what they seemed. The plot was convoluted and deliberately ridiculous. The fact that I had guessed the murderer by the interval mattered not at all. There was a modicum of physical comedy but the play was driven by the word-play: the script was peppered with puns and solecisms and double entendres to the extent that the more obvious and the more infantile they were, the funnier they became. All the actors really had to do was cling on as they rode the script but their timing was perfect and the delivery impeccable. The job of the set, the costumes and the technicals in this sort of production is to keep out of the way, no small skill, and they achieved this flawlessly.

This was a hugely entertaining play. Congratulations to all involved.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God