Entertaining Murder

Entertaining murder at the Gatehouse theatre, Highgate

A musical murder mystery written and directed by Chris Burgess based around a real life murder trial which took place just over a century ago in 1922.

The plot is fairly simple: Glamorous dreamer Edith Thompson is bored living in Ilford with her dull conservative husband Percy, she is introduced to a young sailor named Freddy Bywater via her sister Avis (Who Freddie was initially dating.) and the two begin an affair, Percy becomes suspicious and it cumulates in an altercation in which Percy is killed. All very dramatic to be sure, but as all the action takes place in the first 15 minutes my initial thought was ‘how on earth are they going to  stretch this out to fill a 90 minute show?’

Fortunately I need not have worried as it turns out the real action takes place in the aftermath of the killing when a cache of letters between Edith and Freddy are discovered, which cause a stir not just for their racy content, but also because they seem to suggest that Percy’s killing was not merely a crime passionnel but something premeditated…. But is everything what it seems?

Narrated by Edith’s sister Avis (played by Sue Kelvin) As an elderly spinster seeking a posthumous pardon for her in the 1970s (50 years after the event took place) The show does a good job of exploring 1920’s morality and attitudes to women, as well as asking where do the lines between fiction and reality blur?

As Edith and Freddie both faced the death penalty, and (Despite Avis’s best efforts) the case was never reopened, a century later the question still remains un-answered: Was Edith Thompson a femme fatal who callously manipulated her lover to murder her husband? Or simply an unhappy housewife with a vivid imagination who became the victim of a cruel media circus. You will have to watch it and draw your own conclusions…..

As a production ‘Entertaining murder’ was well written and well executed, the cast were all very well suited to their roles, Daisy Sneldon was a solid choice for the role of Edith, giving echo’s of Rene Zellweger in the iconic murder musical ‘Chicago.’ However the two who really stood out for me in terms of performance were Alex Gosgriff (Playing the detective and Percy the murdered husband) Who seems to be a rising star from the Oxford school of drama, and Sue kelvin a well-seasoned veteran with an impressive CV who embodied the role of Avis the elderly narrator.

Set and costume were on point, and unusually for a fringe period piece there was absolutely nothing that looked out of place. (If we were really splitting hairs then the female cast members 1920’s finger wave hairstyles weren’t all they could’ve been, but I know from experience that those things are an absolute pain in the proverbial so I’ll let it slide.)

My other minor gripe was that both myself and a couple of people I got chatting to after the show agreed that the ending felt like it dragged out for slightly too long, but do not let that put you off! Overall ‘Entertaining murder’ definitely lives up to its name, it’s both entertaining and intriguing and I would highly recommend catching it at the gatehouse theatre if you can.

Entertaining Murder April 23rd-May10th Upstairs at the Gatehouse