Topsham Estuary Players | What's On in Topsham | Live Drama in Devon | Theatre Companies in Exeter

Review by David Evans

An intriguingly detailed set welcomes the audience to a well-appointed front room with a coffin centre stage. A head is clearly visible as the corpse appears to be leaning casually against the top end of the coffin. Directed by Ian Potts, this accomplished production relentlessly reveals the darkest facets of English suburbia and its symbiotic relationship with corruptible civic functionaries. Only Macleavy, played by Howard Eilbeck, the bereft husband whose wife has mysteriously died at the hands of her nurse, manages to stir some sympathy from the audience. Eilbeck's performance depicts a delightfully feckless man who lurches between states of grief, shock, indignation and lust as Fay, the gold digging nurse, deliciously tees him up for her eighth husband.
Although Joe Orton's satirical work might be framed as a pastiche of an Agatha Christie "Whodunnit", there is little mystery as to the identity of the murderer. This becomes rapidly apparent as Fay, dazzlingly played by Rachel Ratibb, is so luridly coquettish, that she seems capable of seducing and marrying any one of several male characters - depending on their financial worth.
The detective, Truscott, thinly disguised as an inspector from the Metropolitan Water Board, displays an authoritarian, cruel and robotic adherence to protocol. Nigel Mason pulls off his characterisation of the inscrutable Truscott with panache, and the ease with which he capitulates and ultimately coordinates the nefarious activities shows a disturbing insouciance.
Macleavy's son is played by Leigh Steedman. His character, Hal, seems strangely unconcerned by the death of his mother. Presently he and his friend the undertaker, Dennis, played by Sam King, are revealed to be accomplices in a bank robbery. This is an hilarious double act of bumbling incompetence and sexual peccadilloes as the friends attempt to hide the loot in the coffin while trying to dispose of the body. There are elements reminiscent of a Feydeau farce as the body, money, various doors and screens are shuffled and slammed about in their efforts to avoid detection.
As the entangled plot reaches a conclusion in which the only genuinely innocent person is handcuffed, a second police officer, Meadows, enters to take away the arrestee. The diminutive Meadows is played by Betty Donaldson whose sinister presence commands the stage.
With the darkly authoritarian tones of Inspector Truscott announcing the fire procedures as the evening begins to the curtain call when the corpse takes a bow, this production is rich in surprises. In 1967 Orton's farce focused on a family bereavement to expose corruption and hypocrisy in English institutions, fifty-six years later his whiplash one liners still sting and touch upon contemporary truths. A detailed attention to choreography and rhythm keeps this production fast-paced, immediate and entertaining.