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INSPECTOR DRAKE & THE PERFEKT CRIME
7th-10th June 2006
Cope Auditorium, Loughborough
Directed by Norman Hockley
INVITATION TO WATCH THIS PERFEKT PLAY
The Falcon Players are presenting 'Inspector Drake and the Perfekt Crime' at Loughborough's Cope Auditorium this week.
This play by David Tristram, is a must for any theatregoers who enjoy the chase of playing a sleuth, solving a whodunnit, or naming the murderer before anyone else. The genre of a murder-comedy is somewhat new to me and it took a little time for me to settle into the way the play worked.
But I was eventually pulled into the method the playwright had employed to deliver a fascinating and extremely funny storyline. A murder with more twists than Spaghetti Junction and numerous wrong turns and dead ends. Praise must go to the director Norman Hockley and producer Kathy Philips for their clever and tight interpretation, and the cast of six delivered on an attractively designed and well-dressed set.
Graham Holmes, as Inspector Drake, used strands from characters we have met in a myriad of detectives, but this being comedy, a combination of Clouseau and Gadget featured strongly. He was the backbone of the play and gave an outstanding performance.
His namesake Lawrence Holmes played Sergeant Plod in the fashion of the dependable and loyal Dixon of Dock Green. He was the necessary foil to the parying wit of his superior, but Plod also occasionally stepped out of his role to make wonderful asides to the audience. Congratulations too, to the remaining cast Dot Hollins (Miss Short), Jenny Hargreaves (Sabrina), Kathy Philips (Mrs Short) and Steve Shipton, who played the prime suspect, Dr Short, with the correct mixture of arrogance and wit. |