Something’s Afoot

If you love a good murder mystery, Agatha Christie-style, a special treat is the hilarious whodunit Something’s Afoot. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society brings the spoof to the Playhouse Theatre for a good laugh to a good tune or two. Forget laugh-out-loud, this is guffaw-out-loud. How the cast didn’t crack up was a miracle – they certainly threw themselves into the silliness with energy and enjoyment.

Controlling the mayhem were directors by Leah Venettacci and Robert Manion, with musical direction by Melfred Lijauco. Something's Afoot featured up and coming talent alongside some of Hobart's well known performers. The usual Christie-style characters were there, including a saucy maid, a dissolute nephew and an elderly amateur detective.

Both a spoof and a tribute to Christie, this play is set in the 1940s English countryside in the grandiose Lord Rancour's manor. Ten people, stranded in the isolated English country house, on an island in the middle of a lake, during a raging thunderstorm, are picked off one by one. As the bodies pile up in the library, the survivors try to uncover the identity and motivation of the cunning culprit. The action, over twenty hours, is just one set, an elaborate two-level foyer /entrance hall. Lighting and technical effects were spot on, complementing the well-timed action. I especially liked how the characters interacted with the props in the silly but crucial scene with the chandeliers.

All actors played up their stereotypes, with an especially over the-top-fop performance by Jack Norris (the nephew Nigel Rancour). Samantha James-Radford (maid Lettie) had strong voice production and excellent timing. Pip Tyrell (Miss Tweed the amateur sleuth) applied her usual experience and comic timing. Relative newcomers Chloe Evans (the ingénue Hope Langdon) and James Colbourn-Keogh (Geoffrey the unexpected visitor) were wonderfully ditsy and sweet, with excellent timing. Mark Morgan (Flint “the Gripper”) and Jeff Keogh (Colonel Gillweather) gloriously overplayed their roles as the caretaker and the old army man. The excellent cast also included Roger Chevalier, Paul Levett and Lucy Devine. This fast-paced show was a little (but only a little) difficult to keep up with, mainly because of the laughs (that’s a good thing), but it certainly was fun.  

Merlene Abbott

Photographer: Wayne Wagg