Hello, Is there Any Body There?

‘Hello Is There Any Body There?’ is a very unusual comedy play, written by UK award-winning playwright, Ian Hornby. This farce is presented by the Rockingham Theatre Company and is showing at the Rockingham ‘Castle’ Theatre, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham at 7.30 each night until 25^th June. There is one matinee on Sunday 19^th June at 2.00 pm.

 

         The first act opens to show the plush sitting room in the Simpson-Squire’s ancestral home. Murder novelist, Lady Amelia (Larraine Craig) is trying to wake her husband, Sir Malcolm (Andy Walker) from a brandy induced coma. The doorbell rings and their wimpish friend, Freddie (Rob Walker) is shown into the room by the butler, Smalls (Peter Scarrott).
Freddy learns that Amelia has spent days with writer’s block trying to think of an original plot. He is invited to make suggestions, but shudders at the gruesome thought. In desperation Amelia asks Smalls to help, and adds one of the very many asides to the audience ‘Well after all, the butler normally does the murder’.

          A little later, a Mr Tim (Matthew Fisher) arrives, and Mabel, the cook (Emma Muller) is advised there will be an extra guest for lunch. Sir Malcolm had spoken too soon, as minutes later Mr Tim was shot.

         It is at this stage that the audience becomes involved with the secrets of playwriting and putting on a play, on a budget. Mr Tim, who is dead on the floor, whispers that he is due to appear in the next scene and has to find a way off the stage – unseen.
Within minutes, the police arrive, they are the blundering female Insp. Sides (Lea Tunbridge) and her totally incompetent Detective Constable Fickey.

       Will the gorgeous young WPC Nunnall (Rina Villacorta) solve the crime? Or will it be Miss Marbles (Rachel Neilson) who works out the killer?

 

The first act of this play, when the cast were trying to develop a storyline and a good murder plot was tatty and a bit slow - as the author admits later through one of his characters, this is how it was meant to be. Yes, this is a play in the style of ‘Noises Off’, where the characters are part of the story one minute, and the actors playing the parts the next minute.

The second act is almost like a pantomime, as the hilarious lady Inspector tries to control her Force colleagues. The pace rapidly picked up, the acting at times coming near to slapstick, but director David Heckingbottom kept a tight rein on the cast, whilst still allowing them to milk the jokes. Acting blunders and fluffs were actually built into this riotous script.

The whole cast were magnificent, good rapport and wonderful comedic delivery. Even the bit parts, with relatively new actors, were handled with confidence and brought a huge number of laughs.

The set, as always in Rockingham, was solidly constructed and beautifully decorated (David Heckingbottom and Rob Walker) and delightfully furnished. The other stage crew, Anne Ristrom, Sue Young and Jeannie Watkins worked hard.

The lighting was good (Jackie Hiscox and Mal Neilson), but an even lighting is hard to achieve and there was a dull patch between the leather chair and the sofa which caused some speeches to be in the shade.

Although based mainly upon ‘Murder She Wrote’, this very funny play pokes fun at numerous TV murder series, and the author has created a complete new genre of murder play. Most enjoyable and highly recommended.