Clever farce sends up the work of Dame Agatha
Get ready to laugh at murder. “Murdered to Death,” might very well have been written by The Queen of Crime herself, Dame Agatha Christie. If it had been, however, it wouldn’t be half as funny.
As it stands it’s everything Christie taken to hilarious extremes.
Yes, there are Christie’s famous red herrings, those off-putting clues that pop out and bite you. And, yes, there are those very British characters, stereotypes all, who give the play the same style as Christie’s plays, from “The Mousetrap” to “The Spider’s Web.”
The thing is, British playwright Peter Gordon’s spoof of Dame Agatha is perfectly delightful. Set in a Manor House in the 1930s, the play delivers shivers of delight with every new murder.
In some ways it’s like that zany musical spoof, “Something’s Afoot,” a piece that also sent up Dame Agatha and her eccentric characters.
“Most audiences like to watch a whodunit and this one’s a very funny Agatha Christie spoof. If our rehearsals are anything to go by, our audiences are in for a hilarious evening,” says Dianne McEwan.
“I’m playing Miss Joan Maple, the village busybody/amateur sleuth. Wherever she goes someone gets murdered. She gets introduced in the play, dropping in uninvited and well, let’s just say she sticks around.”
Shades of Angela Lansbury’s Jessica Fletcher and of course Christie’s own Jane Marple.
McEwan grew up in England and was introduced to London’s West End where Christie’s “The Mousetrap” is still playing after 62 years.
McEwan’s costar Nicholas Ruddick has always loved the theatre, too.
“I was in lots of shows during the 1970s when I was a graduate student at McMaster,” he says. “My last appearance was in 1979 for Village Theatre. I suspect some of my present castmates weren’t even born when I last played here.”
Ruddick plays Colonel Charles Craddock, a retired military officer right out of a Christie novel.
“He’s slightly dotty, a retired British military officer, like the Major in the TV series “Fawlty Towers.” He’s straight out of the Empire in India. He has an eye for a pretty young gal, a habit of launching into pointless anecdotes, but is blessed with a kind heart. Though we discover later on he’s not at all what he seems.”
Both Ruddick and McEwan like Agatha Christie mysteries.
“I like to watch Miss Marple and other Christie mysteries on TV,” McEwan says. “They don’t date and they never lose their appeal. They’re also fun to act in. I played Mrs. Boyle in “The Mousetrap,” for Village Theatre a few years ago and she was a similar character to the one I am playing in “Murdered to Death.”
Ruddick agrees. “I like a good mystery,” he says. “But this is more than a formulaic whodunit. It’s true we find out who did the dastardly deeds at the end of the show, but that’s not really the point. The play is a farce, a clever warm-hearted parody of ‘The Mousetrap’ formula. The characters are deliberate stereotypes, but most of them also reveal depth.”
Was Ruddick, a former full-time academic from the University of Regina, able to solve the mystery in “Murdered to Death” when he first read the script?
“Oh dear me, no,” he says. “Not a chance. I’m very bad at that kind of thing.”
Gary Smith has written on theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator for more than 35 years.