These Theatre Thoughts

Ever since Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap first asked audiences ‘whodunnit’ back in 1952, it has been a hit. This new touring production at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre is a real treat, allowing those who – whether for the first time or for the twenty-first time – want to experience a murder mystery like no other a little close to home. The set is a familiar one (especially if you have seen the London production as it is, as far as I could tell, identical), as is the setting: an old country house, a mish-mash of strange and highly suspicious people thrown together by chance (or are they?), and the doughty policeman who has to try to stop a murder from being committed. Spoiler (the only one, don’t worry): he does not succeed. credit: Johan Persson Which is good news for the audience since the murder, why it is committed, and who does it, is what this play is all about. Watching my fellow audience members, their faces rapt with concentration, occasional whispers suggesting one character ...

That decrepit, aged, dirty room where the action plays out in Tilted Wig Productions’ The Picture of Dorian Gray… it is something to behold. The set is a masterpiece, forming almost another character – it is another depiction of how a soul can become unloved, ugly, and abhorrent. It plays variously an artist’s studio, a seedy club, a hospital morgue, a Lord’s living room, and Dorian’s own home. And, just like the doomed soul, just like the titular picture, the walls and the furniture show just what can happen when greed, corruption, and – above all – vanity, creep slowly but surely into someone’s life. Those dark, dank, depressing walls are a bad life writ large for all to see. credit: Craig Sugden It is the set that puts the audience on edge from the start, but it’s not what keeps them there, at least, not entirely. Throughout the play, whether you know the story or not, there is an underlying sense of inevitability that all will not end well. With every new person (victim, in many se...