Review of Cluedo2 by Lynn Carroll

September 18, 2024

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s Superman. I don’t know why that kept going through my head as I watched this play. Probably because I couldn’t for the life of me decide what category to slip this stage production in to. Was it a farce, was it a thriller? No, it was a spoof whodunit. Though please don’t take that as a criticism because once I got used to it I found myself going along with the silliness as much as the next person.

In the first half I did find the acting method unusual, but as is often the case with some of my theatre outings, by the second half my brain has gone into acceptance mode and I find myself understanding what the writers’ brains are conveying to the audience. In this case the writers were Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran of ‘Birds of a Feather’ fame, and much more of course. After all, this was a much loved board game come to life so why wouldn’t it be portrayed as game pieces rather than real life victims and murderers?

Jason Durr pulled off a great American accent as Colonel Mustard along with Gabriel Paul as Reverend Green, although the latter may well have been an American actor as he sounded so authentic. The pair were often puzzled by English phrases such as ‘a cup of Rosie Lee’ and using the word spanner instead of wrench. Mrs White at one stage told us she liked ‘alf a lager’ to which Rev. Green yelled ‘Who the heck is Arthur Lager?’ And that is the only spoiler you will get from me, although there are plenty more where that came from.

I had not really taken much note of who was in the cast except for Jason Durr who I remembered as the young PC in Heartbeat on TV when he was quite a bit younger. When I did peruse my programme during the interval I was surprised to see the number and variety of acting roles to his credit, including some of our best known detective shows like Morse and Lewis, plus hospital dramas Holby and Casualty.

I also recognised the actor playing Miss Scarlett and whispered to my guest, that’s the young lady who won Strictly Come Dancing and I am sure she was in a soap prior to that. Referring to my programme again it confirmed that she had spent 13 years in Coronation Street. Although I watch neither soaps nor Strictly she was immediately recognisable and did very well in her stage debut.

I have to give a special mention to Jack Bennett who played Wadsworth to perfection. I believe he was the tallest cast member and reminded me of a younger John Cleese, but not so stern. His constant denial of being a Butler, but only an actor playing a Butler, still had him manipulated into serving drinks and answering the doorbell.

Overall this was a feast of silliness I quickly found an appetite for and my guest and I agreed it had been an enjoyable night out. I certainly wouldn’t shy away from seeing other productions of this kind as it was good to be shaken from my logical and serious mindset. I must admit to being a terrible armchair critic whilst watching TV but I really should allow for dramatic licence and a little silliness outside the realm of real life.

So, if you are a bit of an amateur sleuth, catch it if you can and see if you can guess...’Who dunnit?’