Palace Theatre: A Party to Murder Review

September 20, 2016 by Claire Cosgrove

A Party to Murder

I really love The Palace Theatre. It is a beautifully ornate theatre with its impressive ceilings and pretty cornicing. I love the touring plays that visit too. A little more modest and quaint than the bigger and glitzier shows at The Cliffs.

This week, I trotted off to see A Party to Murder. It follows the story of six people who have come in secret to a Halloween party to play a murder mystery game. Set in a rustic island cottage, there are secret passageways, incriminating letters, hidden compartments, bodies in the window seat and a twenty-five year-old unsolved mystery twist. They play stars Oliver Mellor (Coronation Street), Natasha Gray (Emmerdale) and Michelle Morris (The Knock). I felt confident that I was in for a fun night.

Well, it was hard to know quite how seriously you were meant to take this play. Was it trying to be ironic? I was a little unsure. It was a rather flimsy script and an odd concoction of thriller and farce. There were times that I squirmed uncomfortably in my comfy seat. The set failed the actors on a number of occasions, wobbling precariously into life about 5 seconds after it was meant to. I also found the accents a little distracting at times.

My god, I sound cruel. Has my reviewer status gone to my head? If it helps, there was some lovely, albeit far-fetched, twists to the plot and I was kept guessing to the end. I really liked Ben Roddy, who managed to hold the play together, in my opinion, not giving in to histrionics and confidently manoeuvring around the play.

Yikes, it wasn’t too bad. I’ve seen a lot worse and was enjoyable enough. It stays at The Palace until 24th September and then moves to Basildon Towngate on 27th – 28th September.