REVIEW: A Murder is Announced at the Theatre Royal Windsor

There were more red herrings in Agatha Christies’ Miss Marple mystery ‘A Murder is Announced’ at the Theatre Royal Windsor this week than you would find at your local wet fish counter.

I would defy anyone who hasn’t read the story to guess who done it at the end.

I certainly hadn’t a clue and it remained a mystery right up to the final moments.

You have to keep your wits about you with Christie detective stories and theatre audiences must pay attention because they don’t have the benefit of the pause button that usually comes to the rescue of a wandering mind.

Although Louise Jameson did a sterling job as the classic Miss Marple, she wasn’t quite crusty enough or wrinkled enough to carry it off perfectly and TV’s Joan Hickson for me, has pole position in the role of the elderly sleuth who runs rings round the constabulary.

I couldn’t help thinking that Sarah Thomas who played aging Dora ‘Bunny’ Bunner might have tackled it with more character gusto.

Nevertheless, Jameson was charming even though her hat was annoyingly perched at a comic angle.

Janet Dibley was delightfully upper crust as Letitia Blacklock, whose life was on the line for most of the story, and I loved to hate spiky Julia Simmons skilfully portrayed  by Lucy Evans.

She has been in theatre since she was a tot in Les Miserables and it showed.

No detective story would be complete without a good detective and Inspector Craddock played by Tom Butcher might not be as quirky as Poirot but he had his moments.

A credible performance from Lydia Piechowiak as Mitzi, not just because of her obvious skill with a post war Eastern bloc accent.

I could have wished that Dean Smith playing Edmund Sweetenham was less theatrical and awkward, unlike Will Huntington who wore Patrick Simmons’ clothes and shoes with ease.

At the time of her death in 1976, Agatha Christie was the most famous detective story writer in the world and some stories such as ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ have been turned into star laden motion pictures.

Christie thrillers have undergone a revival thanks to slick television productions lately and Middle Ground Theatre Company is playing its part in keeping this genre alive.

Freshly decorated Windsor Theatre Royal is the perfect setting for period drama and it was an enjoyable night out.

You really can’t beat live theatre

A Murder is Announced is at the Theatre Royal Windsor until Saturday, October 7.