Review: Agatha Christie's Murder In The Studio by Argent Theatre at LetsXcape
The golden age of radio came to the stage in Murder In The Studio, performed by Argent Theatre this week.
In the wonderful setting of LetsXcape, we headed back to the Thirties and Fifties with a triple bill of Agatha Christie mysteries, directed by Chantelle Thornley.
All three were written for the radio and Argent did a fine job of keeping that spirit while making it visual for the audience.
The first of the short plays was Personal Call in which a cocktail party is interrupted by a mystery phone caller, urging the hosts to go to Newton Abbot station.
James thinks he recognises the voice but is less than willing to make the journey.
That was followed by a Hercule Poirot mystery, Yellow Iris, which gave the cast the chance to test their accents.
When the detective is mysteriously invited to a gathering at a restaurant he, rightly, believes something is amiss.
Finally, there was the down-right sinister Butter In A Lordly Dish in which an arrogant defence lawyer finds himself in a sticky situation.
The three plays are all very different, but work well together. The cast effortlessly played various roles in all three productions, taking turns to stand in front of the micro-phones to deliver their lines.
They were Andrew Beighton, Sharron Cawthorne, Yvonne Cockayne, John Dodd, Jim Hickmore, Flick Millis, Jenny Milnes-Yeoman, Jill Morris, Pat Munro, Tony Roberts, Rebecca Smith, Peter Snow, Janina Sulek, Laura Talbot, Mary Timms, Nick Timms, and Keith Wilson.
And huge praise must go to the Foley sound operators — Pat Munro, Jan Malster and Rebecca Smith — who worked so hard creating all the sound effects in perfect timing with the actors’ words.
It all looked so simple, and yet, I suspect it took a huge amount of effort from the cast and crew to make it look that way — but it certainly paid off. It was definitely worth a look/listen.
