feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2019-01-14 08:41 pm
feather_ghyll) wrote2019-01-14 08:41 pm
REVIEW: Crimes on the Nile
Crimes on the Nile (New Old Friends theatre company, Ustinov studio theatre at Theatre Royal Bath, January 2019. It’s touring England and Wales throughout the spring).
Written by: Feargus Woods Dunlop
Directed by: James Farrell
New Old Friends website
Apparently ‘Crimes on the Nile’ is the fifth in a series of the unconnected adventures of brilliant Belgian detective…Artemis Arinae (mais oui, a lady detective! etc etc). Imagine a Venn diagram, this play would be in the overlapping bit between the circle of Agatha Christie and farce. It’s an affectionate send-up.
Artemis Arinae has joined a cruise on the Nile, hoping for a restful holiday, but as we know from the outset, a murder has been committed on the Amon-Re, that of the very rich Aurora Lightly, who had been trying to hire Artemis’s services. Artemis, wanting her holiday, refused, but she is now determined to solve the mystery! Even if it means staying sober long enough to do so!!
(There’s a lot of drinking on board.)
There is an obvious suspect. Aurora recently married the not-too-bright Henry Lightly, having, er, pinched him from his former fiancée Luna Campbell who is her former friend. Luna has been stalking them since (there are as many anachronisms as period-appropriate dialogue) and is one of the many passengers on the cruise – including a millionaire, a writer, a doctor who was hoping for as much of a holiday as Artemis was, and the staff.
Impressively, the cast numbered only four. With Kirsty Cox focusing on brining Artemis’s immodest brilliance to life, that meant the three other performers had to do a lot of doubling. I thought Heather Westwell showed fine comic acting chops, making a particular impression with lustful writer Temperance Westmacott – the surname one of many tips to Christie, and the first name ironic. Feargus Woods Dunlop also brought four very different characters to life rather hilariously, from a perpetually mortified boy to a German determined to prove he had a sense of humour to a man with the ability to be invisible to most of the other characters. I thought Fergus Leathem’s Scottish accent was sounder than his American one.
It’s a very entertaining romp – just imagine what the big final scene where the detective brings all the suspects together and reveals how the deed was done has to be like when the actors are playing multiple roles. (It reminded me of ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’, except here, the frantic business went right. The cast must have got fit with all the running about and precision required.) There are lots of other nifty theatrical and funny tricks on a single set suggesting the ship, featuring three doors, two portholes and a ventilation cover, which come in handy. The way the play deals with the passage of time and events off the ship are very clever. At first, I thought the humour was a little too crude, but then we got more funny walks – I could have done with them going even bigger on this, there was one scene where a character assisting Artemis in a search decided to go all Chuck Norris for no other reason than that it was in contrast with her calmer, more sensible approach; that was brilliantly daft. Also there was a song at one point for absolutely no reason except to amuse.
However, they decided to play the murder mystery straight, with Artemis making a deadly error along the way. And for once I did work out who it was quite early! There was also a gay romantic subplot that one actor played more consistently than the other.
I would definitely see more productions by this company, featuring Artemis Arinae or not.
Written by: Feargus Woods Dunlop
Directed by: James Farrell
New Old Friends website
Apparently ‘Crimes on the Nile’ is the fifth in a series of the unconnected adventures of brilliant Belgian detective…Artemis Arinae (mais oui, a lady detective! etc etc). Imagine a Venn diagram, this play would be in the overlapping bit between the circle of Agatha Christie and farce. It’s an affectionate send-up.
Artemis Arinae has joined a cruise on the Nile, hoping for a restful holiday, but as we know from the outset, a murder has been committed on the Amon-Re, that of the very rich Aurora Lightly, who had been trying to hire Artemis’s services. Artemis, wanting her holiday, refused, but she is now determined to solve the mystery! Even if it means staying sober long enough to do so!!
(There’s a lot of drinking on board.)
There is an obvious suspect. Aurora recently married the not-too-bright Henry Lightly, having, er, pinched him from his former fiancée Luna Campbell who is her former friend. Luna has been stalking them since (there are as many anachronisms as period-appropriate dialogue) and is one of the many passengers on the cruise – including a millionaire, a writer, a doctor who was hoping for as much of a holiday as Artemis was, and the staff.
Impressively, the cast numbered only four. With Kirsty Cox focusing on brining Artemis’s immodest brilliance to life, that meant the three other performers had to do a lot of doubling. I thought Heather Westwell showed fine comic acting chops, making a particular impression with lustful writer Temperance Westmacott – the surname one of many tips to Christie, and the first name ironic. Feargus Woods Dunlop also brought four very different characters to life rather hilariously, from a perpetually mortified boy to a German determined to prove he had a sense of humour to a man with the ability to be invisible to most of the other characters. I thought Fergus Leathem’s Scottish accent was sounder than his American one.
It’s a very entertaining romp – just imagine what the big final scene where the detective brings all the suspects together and reveals how the deed was done has to be like when the actors are playing multiple roles. (It reminded me of ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’, except here, the frantic business went right. The cast must have got fit with all the running about and precision required.) There are lots of other nifty theatrical and funny tricks on a single set suggesting the ship, featuring three doors, two portholes and a ventilation cover, which come in handy. The way the play deals with the passage of time and events off the ship are very clever. At first, I thought the humour was a little too crude, but then we got more funny walks – I could have done with them going even bigger on this, there was one scene where a character assisting Artemis in a search decided to go all Chuck Norris for no other reason than that it was in contrast with her calmer, more sensible approach; that was brilliantly daft. Also there was a song at one point for absolutely no reason except to amuse.
However, they decided to play the murder mystery straight, with Artemis making a deadly error along the way. And for once I did work out who it was quite early! There was also a gay romantic subplot that one actor played more consistently than the other.
I would definitely see more productions by this company, featuring Artemis Arinae or not.