A fete worse than death
As soon as you saw the stage you knew exactly where you were: inside a tent at a village fete. Indeed the village of Thornton that could be glimpsed through the opening of the tent looked very much like one we had been to before, but maybe that was my imagination, and, as we know, a village is a village. But this one apparently has no contact with the outside world, thanks to the council refusing permission for a mobile phone mast, and no-one appears to have heard of land lines here. So when a murder is committed, there is
plenty of time for the pairing of actor Ray Martin, who plays a detective on television, and Miss Parmenter, who believes in Ray Martin’s detection abilities, to uncover the plot before the police can arrive.
The murder is, ostensibly, all to do with the rivalry between Malcolm and Father Mike over who wins the largest marrow competition. But Malcolm is also in rivalry with Trish, for the chair of the fete committee, and is threatening Nigel with stopping his (one man?) historical re-enactments at future fetes. On top of that Malcolm’s wife, Bunny, wants to leave him and run off with Nigel. It is no wonder, then, that before the end of the first act, Malcolm is lying dead behind the marrow stand, stabbed from behind. But who done it?
Malcolm, before finding himself horizontal, was played by Alastair Trickett, a newcomer to DADS’ stable of talent, and someone who I am sure we shall be seeing again, as a stalwart of village life, but with this marrow obsession that could have cost him his life. His marrow nemesis, Father Mike, was played as a boyish devil may care vicar by Ryan Fannin, last seen in Mansfield Park and Ride, who played him with just the right amount of bounce to show that his ministry must be innovative and possibly a little ‘youthful’ for some his congregation, with the chutzpah to cut a few corners – it was discovered that he had been feeding his marrows with coffee! 
That would not have put off Trish, the young pretender to chair of the fete committee and organiser of this year’s fete. From the moment that she first appeared, which was for the pre-performance statutory announcements, Trish was clearly in charge and with the energy to keep this show and the fete on the road. Another fine performance from Lucinda Kenrick, again last scene in Mansfield Park and Ride, who made Trish just the sort of organiser that every village has. But Trish’s eyes were on Ray Martin, the actor hired to open the fete. Well done to Stephen Eyre on making this character vain and self-centred, particularly as Steve had stepped into the part only a few weeks before when DADS veteran Mark Williams sadly had had to pull out. From a dwarf in last year’s panto to this central part was a big step up and Steve managed it superbly.
There was plenty of experience behind Carol-Anne Tilley as Bunny and Mark Wilkin as Nigel. Carol-Anne’s Bunny was appropriately fluffy and a little air-headed, subservient to Malcolm but in reality wanting Nigel. Mark’s Nigel was somewhat self-pitying but played with energy, which often gave the performance on-stage movement that can be difficult in a single scene production.
But the real plaudits must go to Sally ‘I want a small part’ Bell, who ended up as Miss Parmenter, the central pivot in the unravelling of the murder plot. Rather scatty with some extremely unusual varieties of pickles and who apparently found it difficult to distinguish between Ray Martin the actor and his on screen detective persona, she took charge and dominated the stage whenever she was on. Her first appearance was to threaten to hit Malcolm on the head with a jar of pickles for being obnoxious, which was so strongly done, that you knew that this scatty woman had grit, which, when the time came, she would use to ensure the murder plot was uncovered. We saw in Snow White last year when Sally played the Fairy Queen and a yokel, that she had presence on stage, but she had never tackled as big a part as this before. Some long time DADS regulars are going to find more competition for these parts in future.
This was Russell Bailey’s directorial debut for DADS, although he has appeared in five previous DADS productions and directed elsewhere, and it is to his credit that he got these good performances across the board from his cast. With just the one set it can, as previously mentioned, be difficult to get a feeling of any action on stage and to end up with just a line of actors talking to each other. With the stage layout of two stands, vegetables one side and jams and pickles the other, angled to each other, and the way in which he had characters moving around when several were on stage simultaneously, he obtained movement that gave the set a sense of reality.
He was ably assisted by Rosemary Mills as Assistant Director, and Christine Jones must also be acknowledged for producing the very large marrows, around which so much revolved.
Another great evening out with DADS.
There was a competition in the interval when the audience were asked to nominate who they thought had done it with a prize for the winner, which was a lovely idea that made us think carefully about the plot, and enter the second act keen to for the story to unfold. But I am not going to reveal the ending, except to say that it wasn’t the marrow what done it.