Chapel Players, Old Tupton latest production 'Annie, One, Two, Three' a murder mystery by David Summers November 15th - 19th 2011 |
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About the author, David Summers
David
Summers only started writing plays in his 50s, after a long career in
stage management in the professional theatre. He is exclusively
published by Playstage Senior and is currently working on his fourth
play - hopefully - another murder mystery, due to the popularity of his
third play, ANNIE, ONE, TWO, THREE. His first published play, the one
act STRAIGHT TO DVD, a moving account of the meaning of fatherhood, has
been performed at several one act play festivals where it has won awards
for the actors and groups taking part. His second play, REDUCE, RENDER
& SWEAT, a satire on the world of professional cookery writers and
presenters, has also been performed extensively throughout the UK and
overseas. David currently lives in Florida, USA and intends to continue
writing for Playstage Senior for as long as he can!
Thrillers
by John Harrop
Anticipation and involvement are key components of
theatre and the mystery and suspense genre arouses our delight at
being enthralled and often thrilled at what we see on stage. It excites our
curiosity.
In the following piece I use the terms "thriller,
police detection, mystery and whodunit" quite loosely as often
in one play there are elements of all three.
We may trace the genesis and
subsequent development of the stage thriller from Shakespearean and later
Jacobean revenge tragedy through melodramas, such as "Maria Marten and The Red
Barn" and the 19th century French "Grand Guignol" plays with their origin
in the cabaret plays of Montmartre.
Detectives The modern stage thriller is firmly linked to the
detective novel, which enjoyed its golden age in the 20s, 30s and 40s. Many
experts date detective fiction to around 1840 with Edgar Allan Poe and his
detective, "Monsieur Auguste Dupin" solving the deaths in the Rue Morgue.
The first stage detective mystery may have been, "The Frozen Deep", an amateur
theatrical written by Wilkie Collins, with guidance from Charles Dickens, in
1856. It was described as "dark and moody" but was not particularly
successful.
The main thrust of the stage thriller is that the
crime or attempted crime, usually a murder, and the circumstances in which
it happened, with probably more deaths to follow, are set out before an
audience.Sometimes both the murderer and motive are known.
The eager audience may have the knowledge of the
killer's identity while the stage characters are ignorant of their impending
fate-the suspense created lies in whether they can find out in time and are able
to outwit the criminal.
Early thrillers
Early thrillers
Wilkie Collins in the late 19th century dramatised
some of his novels in particular, "The Woman in White" (presented by Chapel
players in 1997). Between the wars Edgar Wallace had a series of successful West
End runs with numerous plays including "On The Spot", which was revived in the
mid 1980s with Simon Callow in Charles Laughton's initial role.Thrillers
that are often revived from this period and later include Patrick
Hamilton's "Rope" (1929), "Gaslight" (1939), Emlyn William's "Night Must Fall"
and the trilogy of well crafted detective plays of Frederick Knott
from the 50s and 60s.
From the 1940s onwards, Agatha Christie held sway
in the thriller genre in the commercial theatre. Her play,"The Moustrap" has
played at a variety of London theatres clocking up over 23,000 performances in
over 55 years. One of the longest running plays in New York history is "Perfect
Crime" by Warren Manzi. It contains all the hallmarks of a good
whodunit-affluence, a secluded mansion, love and a murder. It's impossible to
talk of the American theatre and thrillers without mention of the
classic-"Arsenic and Old Lace"(1939) by Joseph Kesselring. Who could forget the
two Brewster sisters! Sadly for many amateur groups the requirement of ten men
in the cast makes the play difficult to put on.
Thrillers and whodunits mostly work well with a
large cast-the larger the cast, the more characters to be "bumped off" and also
the greater number of suspects with which to tease and involve an audience. But
this is not always the case, and three plays in particular with
much smaller casts-"Sleuth" by Anthony Shaffer (1970, "Double
Double" by Eric(Rick) Elice and Roger Rees and "Who Killed Agatha
Christie?" (1974) by Tudor Gates kept audiences guessing with the
psychological ingenuity of their plots and the quality of the cut and
thrust dialogue between characters.
Audience involvement
Audience involvement
Audiences seem to want to be involved in thriller
and mystery plays. They want to "guess who's done it", deduce why a crime has
taken place and suggest how it happened.They enjoy sifting through red
herrings (perhaps only to themselves?) and coming up with a plausible and
correct conclusion. They want to leave the theatre telling themselves-"I worked
it out"
Many years ago I saw a mid week matinee of
Agatha Christie's "Black Coffee" at the Redgrave Theatre, Farnham in Surrey. At
one point in the play a gun used earlier "to commit a murder" was lying
isolated at the front of the stage. As a character moved towards it,
clearly intending to pick it up as per the script, an agonised and very
loud cry came from the rear of the stalls-"Don't touch it!" For a split second
it appeared this might happen!
Novels adapted for the stage
Novels adapted for the stage
Many detective and thriller novels have been
cleverly adapted for the stage by a variety of writers.Mention should be made of
these in particular, Gerald Verner (1897-1980) who apart from being a prolific
author in his own right, made adaptations for the stage of books by Peter
Cheyney and Agatha Christie's "Towards Zero" in 1956. It's a highly skilful task
re-setting action which might have taken place in a variety of
locations, adding dialogue and possibly reducing a huge array of
characters into a single set theatre setting, compressing the piece into around
one hundred and fifty minutes.
Decline of the stage thriller
Decline of the stage thriller
As I've already mentioned, the "thriller play" was
at one time one of the main stays of both the London theatre and the many
repertory companies up and down the country, but there has been a real decline.
Charles Spencer, the well respected drama critic of "The
Telegraph" reviewing "Deathtrap" in 2010 gives two possible reasons for this
decline in the stage whodunit. He writes that, "glossy television series like Morse, Poirot and the updated
Sherlock Holmes do it much better,with atmospheric locations and characters one
grows to know in depth.........and that stage thrillers have been
mercilessly parodied out of existence". He cites Tom Stoppards's "The Real
Inspector Hound", Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" and Ira Levins' in "Deathtrap"
(1978). In speaking of these plays, Spencer says that they "combined brilliant
plots with a witty deconstruction of the very genre they were working
in". He goes on to say that neither Shaffer nor Levin were able to repeat their
successes, though Shaffer tried with a whodunit called "The Case of the Oily
Levantine" (1977) which contained a star studded cast in its
short pre-London tour.
Many critics have written about thriller
plays in rather derogatory terms.Their basic melodramatic plots have often
though resulted in excellent box office takings. Writers enjoy playing tricks
with their audience. Perhaps the secret to stay one step ahead of the playwright
is to listen very carefully to the dialogue for clues-and remember
that no one is totally above suspicion, the butler notwithstanding!. Agatha Christie, in both her books and plays, is
the "Mistress of the hidden meaning". She litters her plays with false
trails, vague, incoherent memories from the past, half seen images
and leading words which may not mean actually what you initially think and
characters who had connections years previously. Crisp, intelligent, relevant
dialogue and a strong plot is usually the key to a successful stage
whodunit.
Location and settings
Lesser known thrillers
Location and settings
Many thrillers are located in private houses, often
isolated and lived in by the rich and affluent. Francis Durbridge was the master
of placing his many plays in this kind of setting. His plays often seem to
revolve around money, finance, power and influence in the Home Counties
stockbroker belt.The use of the telephone is one of his trademark devices
together with bodies that appear on stage one minute, which may or
may not be dead and then have disappeared seemingly turning the plot on its
head. Adulterous relationships and blackmail are other key elements in
Durbridge's armoury of eight successful plays which include, "Suddenly at
Home" (1971) to "Sweet Revenge", his last play in 1993.
Most whodunits conclude with the arrest of the
guilty party by the often omnisicient detective, but within the legal process
this is only part of the story. Two plays-"Witness For the Prosecution" (Agatha
Christie) and "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" by the prolific, Jeffrey Archer take the
crime and criminal into the courtroom.Those of you who know Christie well will
clearly remember the evidence given by the lady in the witness box (and the
actress playing the part!) who isn't all she seems.
There has even been at least one whodunit musical
called "Something's Afoot"! It was premiered in America in 1972 with a cast
including Tessie O'Shea. Scenes from a later production may be viewed
on YouTube!
Lesser known thrillers
I'm sure that you are familiar with and
have probably seen, many of the plays I've
mentioned. I'd like to mention others, hardly performed now but at the
time of their first productions were successful, certainly
commercially-"Signpost to Murder" (1962) by
Monte Doyle with Margaret Lockwood in the original cast, "Guilty Party"
(1961) by Campbell Singer and George Ross, "The Sound of Murder"
(1959) by William Fairchild,
"The Business of Murder" (1981) by Richard
Harris and finally "Underground" (1983) by Michael Sloan-the plot revolves
around passengers trapped on an underground train .....with a murderer! Raymond
Burr, the star of "Perry Mason" and "Ironside", was in the London
production.
Chapel Players website
Thrillers performed by Chapel Players
Chapel Players website
Perhaps you have a favourite play in this type
you'd like to share with others via the Chapel players
website.www.chapelplayers-tupton.com
It's a rattling good website-please have a read and maybe send a comment-THANKS.
It's a rattling good website-please have a read and maybe send a comment-THANKS.
Thrillers performed by Chapel Players
Over
the last few years Chapel Players have
presented the following thrillers-"The Proof of the Poison" by Falkland L
Cary & Philip Weathers (2007), "Busybody" by Jack Popplewell
(2009) and "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie (2010). We hope
you enjoy the Chapel
Players NEXT production of a Derbyshire premiere-a clever mystery with a
sting
in the tail called, "Annie, One, Two, Three" by David Summers
Main Theme for play.mp3
