The Farndale Avenue Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery

Within the grand halls of Checkmate Manor, murder is rampant and each of the chess pieces that fall is inevitably connected to another character’s grisly demise. Well, that is the play being performed by the passionate, but relatively hopeless, members of the Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society. The audience has the challenge of solving the crimes and determining who is the murderer, while laughing continuously at this passionate debacle. Think of everything that can go wrong in a play and that happens with this Guild production – furniture that collapses, not enough entrances, lines not known and cues missed. Oh, and not enough actors for the many roles.

Directors Caitlin Jones and David Jones have brought this to hilarious life with an excellent set and a cast of only five to cover the many, many parts of the Murder Mystery. Importantly, they have pushed everything to the limit with props and the excellent timing for the uniformly good cast.

Zita Anderson, Susan Harding- Smith, Carrie O’Rourke and Donna Woolard were the four ladies of the cast and they showed their versatility by playing many diverse characters successfully. Not only did they have to play various roles, but they had to do so with passion and bungling as the Ladies Guild members. Craig Longaria was the sole male performer and blended in perfectly.

Mousetrap Theatre has continued its policy of involving the audience by giving a quiz sheet to find who, in the audience, could solve the murders. It was not essential as everyone was fully absorbed from the word go. Actually, this production was one where the audience could just sit back, laugh and really enjoy the night. Well done to everyone involved. Very highly recommended.

William Davies