RegionalMag Article
Classic Thriller Season 2013 - Murderer - The Theatre Royal. Review by Gavin Patton
Norman Bartholomew (John Goodrum) is a Bohemian artist. He is also obsessed with murder. Idolising the famous murderers of the past, he loves to recount the gory details of their crimes and even acts them out, playing the parts of his favourite murderers, with his mistress Millie Sykes (Sarah Wynne Kordas) taking the role of his victims! But it’s all just a bit of harmless fun isn’t it? Local Policeman Sergent Stenning (Adrian Lloyd-James) doesn’t think so, and warns Norman that his games could be more dangerous that he thinks...
Murderer, the fourth instalment of Nottingham Theatre Royal’s “Classic Thriller Season 2013”, takes place in the artists studio of Norman Bartholomew at his home in Dorset over a period of two days. It is here that Norman plays out his meticulous and highly elaborate games of murder, and lives out his fantasy of emulating his “heroes”, and creating his own “masterpiece”. But the life of an artist is never easy! His long suffering wife Elizabeth (Susan Earnshaw) won’t grant him a divorce and Millie is losing patience...
There’s plenty of dark humour woven through this very clever and original story, and it’s all brought to life (or should that be death?) superbly by excellent performances all round from the cast. This must-see play provides an excellent climax to this year’s Classic Thriller Season!
Classic Thriller Season 2013 - Murderer - The Theatre Royal. Review by Gavin Patton
Norman Bartholomew (John Goodrum) is a Bohemian artist. He is also obsessed with murder. Idolising the famous murderers of the past, he loves to recount the gory details of their crimes and even acts them out, playing the parts of his favourite murderers, with his mistress Millie Sykes (Sarah Wynne Kordas) taking the role of his victims! But it’s all just a bit of harmless fun isn’t it? Local Policeman Sergent Stenning (Adrian Lloyd-James) doesn’t think so, and warns Norman that his games could be more dangerous that he thinks...
Murderer, the fourth instalment of Nottingham Theatre Royal’s “Classic Thriller Season 2013”, takes place in the artists studio of Norman Bartholomew at his home in Dorset over a period of two days. It is here that Norman plays out his meticulous and highly elaborate games of murder, and lives out his fantasy of emulating his “heroes”, and creating his own “masterpiece”. But the life of an artist is never easy! His long suffering wife Elizabeth (Susan Earnshaw) won’t grant him a divorce and Millie is losing patience...
There’s plenty of dark humour woven through this very clever and original story, and it’s all brought to life (or should that be death?) superbly by excellent performances all round from the cast. This must-see play provides an excellent climax to this year’s Classic Thriller Season!
Nottingham Post
Less whodunnit, more of a will-he-do-what
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
AS might be anticipated, the protagonist of Murderer is a murderer, or perhaps he just aspires to be. But with Anthony Shaffer, the dramatist who came up with Sleuth, you can't be sure. This is a clever play that keeps you guessing throughout.
It happens in Dorset, in the studio of artist Norman Bartholomew (well played by John Goodrum, looking here a little like Roman Polanski). It seems that Bartholomew is in bumping-off mode – only "seems" mark you, because in this play nothing is straightforward.
Less whodunnit, more of a will-he-do-what
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
AS might be anticipated, the protagonist of Murderer is a murderer, or perhaps he just aspires to be. But with Anthony Shaffer, the dramatist who came up with Sleuth, you can't be sure. This is a clever play that keeps you guessing throughout.
It happens in Dorset, in the studio of artist Norman Bartholomew (well played by John Goodrum, looking here a little like Roman Polanski). It seems that Bartholomew is in bumping-off mode – only "seems" mark you, because in this play nothing is straightforward.
As the action opens he's with fetching girlfriend Millie Sykes (Sarah Wynne Kordas, excellent as ever in a non-eccentric, non-nutty role) playing a board game.
No one says anything at all for something like ten minutes – although it initially seems as if the piece might be cashing in on the current vogue for all things silent; Shaffer wrote this in 1977.
Only two other characters come on: wife Elizabeth (Susan Earnshaw), an obstetrics surgeon, domineering and disagreeable; and Sergeant Stenning (Adrian Lloyd-James), a stock stage copper in uniform with a West Country burr, who drinks off-duty and is comically noisy with it.
All the time Shaffer is lampooning the conventional thriller.
Simultaneously this is meta-theatre: he's poking fun at the very medium of theatre itself – at one point he has Norman consciously breaching the fourth wall and relating directly with the stalls. In most respects Shaffer demonstrates impeccable taste but occasionally he gets it wrong: there are one or two gags he makes his characters do which step outside the world he's set up for himself. These don't enhance proceedings – they jar. He should have let the dark humour and the elements of farce speak for themselves. A whole host of major real-life names from the Golden Age of Murder get a mention, including Nottingham's very own "Nurse" Dorothea Waddingham.
The well-observed early 70s set, designed by Wynn Kordas, is brilliantly dressed with all sorts of realistic clutter. What's more, there's the facility for seeing action in silhouette, which helps when it comes to a dismemberment scene or two.
Murderer is definitely not a whodunit, but nor is it a will-he-get-away-with-it thriller. Perhaps it's more of a will-he-do-what.
At any rate, it's a bold departure from your relatively routine thriller; and it's a highly enjoyable final play in what has been an excellent Classic Thriller Season.
BY ALAN GEARY