Compton Players |
The Compton Players web site is at www.comptonplayers.co.uk.
Last production
Murdered to Death, 24th to 27th April 2013
By
Peter Gordon. The play introduces the inept and bungling Inspector
Pratt, who battles against the odds and his own incompetence to
solve the murder of the house's owner. It soon becomes clear that
the murderer isn't finished yet, but will the miscreant be unmasked
before everyone else has met their doom, or will the audience die
laughing first? See the review below.
Where
At the Coronation Hall, Compton (10 miles north of Newbury). Click here for a map.
Box office
07767 268634.
About Compton Players
Compton Players have been producing plays every year since 1947. We always welcome new members, and we are looking not only for people who want to act, but also those who can construct scenery, or would like to learn how, those who can make or sew costumes, those with a knowledge of electrics and/or electronics, and those who would like to help with publicity, box-office and front of house. We normally rehearse on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and for most productions there are twelve weeks of rehearsals. It doesn't matter if you've had any previous experience or not.
Contact Compton Players
Our chairman is Mark Bailey - contact him by .
Review of Murdered to Death
24th to 27th April 2013.
Review from the Newbury Weekly News.
While over at Compton, the thick plottens...
Compton Players: Murdered to Death, at the Coronation Hall, Compton, from Wednesday, April 24 to Saturday, April 27
For the play Murdered to Death, by Peter Gordon, think Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau transferred to an English country house in the 1930s.
There is no doubt about it, apart from the French accent (remember 'ders your durg bite'?) this police Inspector is a dead ringer for Peter Sellers' creation in the Pink Panther movies. Inspector Pratt makes all the same errors, is clumsy and dangerous, especially when he shoots his own police constable in the foot and, whenever someone else is on the right track, that's the one he was just coming to.
This is a very funny play, a spoof of every Agatha Christie piece where typical English folk are gathered in a country house and the murderer is only revealed just before the last curtain.
Compton Players took this amusing piece and shook it out for every nuance of comedy and character development. Andy Nunn was a typical old style Colonel, Mandy Clark sounding 1930s natural as his wife, Mary Warrington portrayed Mildred with calm assurance and Jenni Collins was a fine Dorothy, her expressions and acting tracing someone who appeared to be a quiet, pleasant young woman at first but gradually showing her as a scheming plotter.
Paul Shave had fun as Bunting, the ill-mannered retainer and Tracey Pierce and Pete Watt did well as a rather crooked pair who were not what they seemed.
Brenda Prior was a somewhat downbeat Miss Maple and Andy Alexander made a good, long-suffering constable.
H Connolly had the best part though, as the bumbling and hopeless Inspector Pratt. A true prat indeed...
The production was smooth and well paced generally, with no sign that it had been directed; a sure sign of very good, unobtrusive direction. Mind you, hemlines were a bit short for the 1930s. Great fun and, as the Inspector said: "The thick plottens, yet again."
DEREK ANSELL
Previous productions
The Happiest Days of Your Life, 28th November to 1st December 2012. See the review in the archive.
Dangerous Corner, 28th to 31st March 2012
Bobby Shaftoe, 10th to 12th November 2011
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 11th to 14th May 2011
Three Short Comedies, 14th to 16th October 2010
What the Butler Saw, 21st to 24th April 2010
Halloween Murder Mystery, (October 2009)
The Unexpected Guest (October 2009)
Laying the Ghost (April 2009)
A Dog's Life and Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (November 2008)
Puppy Love (May 2008)
Macbeth (November 2007)
Shakers Re-Stirred (May 2007)
Nobody's Perfect (November 2006)
The Entertainer (May 2006)
Dad's Army (November 2005)
Don't Dress for Dinner (November 2004)
The Eighth Dwarf (February 2004)
Three One-Act Plays (April 2003)
Under Milk Wood (November 2002)
'Allo 'Allo (April 2002)
Katherine Howard (November 2001)
It Could Be Any One of Us (April 2001)
Dead Funny (November 2000)
Klondike Kalamity (April 2000)