A guest review by Steve Roche
Photo Credit: Pamela Raith Photography – Katie McGlynn, Max Bowden, Jason Durr and Peter Moreton in Murder at Midnight.
The first thing we see is an ambitious multi-layered set which will allow the action to go in several parts of the house, often at the same time. We rapidly meet a range of characters brought together for New Year’s Eve. No-one is quite what they seem and are all hiding something. So we need to pay close attention.
Murder at Midnight, from Original Theatre, is ‘a gripping murder mystery’. It’s the second in a series of murder plays by Torben Betts. Murder in the Dark premiered in 2023. It was also set on New Year’s Eve and also featured Susie Blake.
Is this a murder mystery? Yes, but it’s also other things: a gangster thriller, a study of family life, with a darkly comic social realism reminiscent of Alan Ayckbourn or Mike Leigh.
Jason Durr, known to many from Heartbeat and Casualty, gives a dominant performance as Johnny the one-eyed gangster, drug dealer, and pig farmer.
Susie Blake, familiar from Victoria Wood and Coronation Street, is excellent and funny as his slightly deranged mother.
Other familiar faces are Max Bowden, best known for EastEnders, and Katie McGlynn, who brings wide-ranging TV experience to the role of Lisa, Johnny’s girlfriend.
From the supporting cast I particularly liked Peter Moreton as Trainwreck, a complex character cleverly combining menace with engaging vulnerability.
The second half of the show picks up the pace as we begin to unravel the stories from the first half. There are some ingenious technical devices, some confusion, surprises, and a lot of blood (yes I’m afraid there are murders involved).
The director suggests we are watching classic farce as influenced by (film director) Tarantino. I can see what he means. But hey, not everything has to fit into a category. Maybe this is something original in a genre of its own. It reminded me a bit of the Knives Out films.
What’s certain is that the theatre was packed for the first night in Ipswich, and the audience clearly enjoyed their evening out.
Murder at Midnight runs at the New Wolsey until Sat 7th February – for tickets visit their website.
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