The classic murder mystery board game is back for another stage adaptation, where all is not as it seems and danger lurks around every corner.
The biggest danger though is that you’ll trip over a bad pun. While death unavoidably rears its head this is a feather-light romp through the famous country house, that gets sillier with every turn.
The humour is somewhere between Airplane! and Weekend At Bernie’s, with lots of word play, slapstick, and overblown situations: your best leaving your detective’s magnifying glass at home if you’re searching for much in the way of rationale.
Jack Bennett’s Wadsworth, the pretend butler, does a lot of the comic lifting, with this melodramatic portrayal, while Dawn Buckland throws enough ham at her over-the-top take on cook Mrs White that they must have to restock the fridge during the interval. One scene where she interjects names of various puddings – think spotted dick and muffins – over the top of a second conversation is classic music hall.
They outshine the TV names on the cast, although Casualty’s Jason Durr and Coronation Street and Strictly’s Ellie Leach do decent turns as Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlett. Hannah Boyce also impacts as upper-class pretender Mrs Peacock, especially when her mask slips.
Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s script won’t win many prizes for originality – you can see most of the jokes a mile off – but its amusing and absurd enough to keep you entertained. Mark Bell’s direction constantly moves us on to the next gag, helped by David Farley’s sparse set. The design has gone from feast to famine: the 2022 touring show had a solid, complex set that took an age to transition; the current incarnation has a doorframe on wheels and a few bits of furniture.
This is no theatrical masterpiece but it is a frothy piece of distraction that can happily kill a couple of hours. Give your critical faculties a couple of blows with the lead pipe and this is an enjoyably daft concoction, with enough twists and comic asides to keep it fast and funny.
- Cluedo is at Norwich Theatre Royal until Saturday, July 6, 2024.
