Halloween comes to life on stage in murder mystery
Review
Death Knell
Inglewood Cue Theatre October 30-November 10 Jo Hills There was definitely an eerie chill in Inglewood on Tuesday night. However, it wasn’t because of the wintery weather.
Instead, it was centred around TET Cue Theatre where the thriller Death Knell was being acted out. Lots of grisly murders and creepy moments were involved. It seemed Halloween had come to life on stage.
Right from the suspense-filled beginning it looked as if this show was going to be one hell of a whodunnit. Sinister music played, lighting and sound synced cleverly together and a stunning stage set certainly created the atmosphere for this murder mystery written by James Cawood.
Patrons were ready to sit nervously on the edge of their seats, being scared, surprised and entertained by unexpected twists and turns.
In reality though, it was actually the actors, not the audience, who appeared to suffer from nerves on opening night. Lines were forgotten, cues were slow to be picked up on and props dropped. It wasn’t the confident, slick performance we had been expecting.
Yet, in a strange way, the hesitancy and need for prompting became part of the play and sort of worked. In fact, you began to doubt your own response. As different power struggles and dominancy began to emerge among the characters you wondered if it had actually all been part of a carefully planned strategy.
Katherine Wolfe portrayed an alcoholic wife with apparently little control over her life. So, the overly quiet, weak, timid uncertainty of her role became almost believable.
Simon Buick generally kept the action moving along but even he had moments where his confidence floundered as the script diverted round in uncertain circles before lurching back on target.
Tyler McGlone made a very strong, stand-out entrance. But as the play came to a close and his villainous side needed to be at its strongest he flustered.
However, he did show great skill when coping with a misplaced gun that had slipped out of sight, even using some audience interaction to handle this unexpected event.
Steve Hobson added a delightful dollop of comedy and light relief in his quirky role of the detective chief inspector.
Death Knell is the sort of theatre genre where you find clues and put pieces together to solve many mysteries. It has you guessing even after the curtain goes down. This particular production, under the directorship of Lois Sibtsen, will hopefully grow in strength with each subsequent performance. appeared slightly
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