Murder Weekend by Bettine Manktelow
Thursday 5 - Saturday 7 February 2009
Knebworth Village Hall at 8pm

Knebworth Players production of Bettine Manktelow’s ‘Murder Weekend’ was a comedy thriller performed at a cracking pace.  Graham Dormer, the director, extracted from the cast performances that spanned a range from the outright comic to the decidedly creepy!

‘Murder Weekend’ sees Livia, a romantic short story writer suffering from writer’s block, and her husband Stanley, arrive at a country hotel for a ‘murder mystery’ weekend.  They are joined by Patsy and her husband Ashley, who have won the weekend in a competition, and Vi and Dorothy, friends who regularly attend such weekends. 

Alison Levesley was particularly impressive in the role of Livia Wagstaff, the frustrated wife and writer.  Her convincing performance clearly showed Livia’s boredom with her routine life, frustrations with her husband Stan and longing for some excitement.  But when life gets a little too exciting she realises what she is putting at risk and, at the end of the play, she gratefully returns to her life, somewhat wiser and with her writers block unblocked!

Wayne Jarvis, in the role of Stan, perfectly portrayed Livia’s serious, distracted and somewhat boring husband who never really understands exactly what is going on, fortunately for Livia!  Even when he does suspect her of an affair with Ashley McAvoy (another lovely performance from David Smith, on loan from Settlement Players), he accepts without question the explanations he’s given – or maybe he just doesn’t want to see the truth?

David Smith’s real life wife, Gill, played his on stage wife ‘Patsy’.  For Gill, who normally contributes behind the scenes, this was her first experience of appearing on the stage and she gave a lovely performance as the wronged wife, including an exciting scene when she discovers the affair and angrily exits the stage.

Knebworth Players regulars, Pauline Jordan and Shirley King, once again delivered great performances – Pauline as the friendly, slightly ‘dotty’ Dorothy and Shirley as her grumpier, all knowing friend Violet.  What a great double act!

These guests are welcomed to the hotel by the owner Mrs Johnson, played with great comic effect by another Knebworth Players regular, Lorraine VanGoethem.  They are waited on by the chambermaid, Shelley, played by Aimee Pickett who demonstrated a neat turn in fainting at the end of the play!

Once all the invited guest have arrived at the hotel, each receives an anonymous ‘murder mystery’ game envelope.  Someone has left extra notes for Patsy and Stan, exposing Livia and Ashley’s illicit affair.  Next, Shelley, the chambermaid, mysteriously disappears and everyone is left to determine whether this is all part of the game.  However, intrigue and suspicion deepens when one last guest arrives.  Vince Cook (another ‘loan’ from Settlement Players) played Wallace Wainwright and brought a very convincing creepiness to the role.  You wouldn’t want to be left alone in a room with him!  Even when he was being friendly, there was something decidedly unsettling about him – and fears were proved right when he engineers getting Livia alone in the hotel and reveals to her that he is obsessed with her, knows everything there is about her, and wants to kill her!  At this point in the drama the atmosphere shifts a gear when Livia has to face up to Wallace and his threats – a convincing scene very well played by both Alison and Vince.

There is, of course, a happy ending.  Livia is rescued by the timely arrival of Mrs Johnson and the disappearance of Shelley is revealed as all part of the plot.  Couples, Patsy and Ashley and Livia and Stan, are reconciled and Wallace is captured by the police. 

The set perfectly evoked the English country hotel setting and aside from a few technical difficulties around phones that wouldn’t ring the whole thing proved to be a very entertaining evening in the company of Knebworth Players.

Barbara Holgate-Stuckey