The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery

Nash Theatre rounds out their season of Murder They Wrote with one of the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate titles in what has become a very popular series for amateur theatre companies worldwide. Basically it’s a poor man’s Noises Off where an amateur group put on a play and everything goes wrong. But where Noises Off is written with far more sophistication and is funnier, Farndale Avenue Murder Mystery aims its arrows lower at an undemanding theatre restaurant level with lots of double entendre about sex and genitals, and a good supply of cross-dressing.

In the play, the group’s spokesperson and master of ceremonies is the bossy Phoebe Reece which Phillipa Bowe played to the hilt with a delicious plummy accent. Rob Harvey’s police Inspector was fun, and paired with Brenda-Keith Walker’s ditzy Daphne Bishop they incongruously mimed and did a dance routine to “I Could Be Happy with You” from The Boy Friend. The other two members of the cast, Emily McCormack and Lisa Wheildon, ran around missing cues, forgetting props and playing dead bodies.

Farce has to be fast and director Gilly Graham kept it moving. It’s very English, silly, innocuous, and probably best enjoyed after a glass of wine.

Peter Pinne