It was a return to the Shaftesbury Theatre last night for the Jolly Lion as the Dawlish Repertory Comedy staged the Seymour Matthews thriller, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ this week. Running from 2 to 7 April 2012, the production was directed by Geoffrey Wildey with plenty of twists and turns.

The play opens with Jennifer and Brian arriving at an Italian villa at the invitation of the mysterious Konakis. Jennifer is quick to highlight her husband’s shortcomings, and when she leaves the room he hides a gun in a drawer before fixing a stiff drink. He’s a man with a job to do, his wife ignorant to his motives.

When a second couple, David and Corinne, arrive at the villa, also at the invitation of Konakis, it becomes apparent that an innocent double booking is something far more sinister. The body count starts to build, and then it becomes clear that all is not as it seems as the characters reveal a shared purpose and some troubled histories. As each is picked off one by one, can they confess how they’ve crossed the unseen host before everybody dies?

This is exactly the kind of theatre the Jolly Lion loves as it messes with both your idea of what a thriller should be and what your idea of theatre should be. It naughtily includes a moment where you think one of the actors has missed their entrance, and as the audience starts to snigger, suddenly the reality of the situation hits home. Marvellous.

The cast were in full flow by the end of the run, with John Carne endlessly watchable as Franco, whose over the top performance brought humour to the horrors of events in the villa – pitching it perfectly for the role he had to play. Tracey Davies plays Pamela, a nice character who seems overwhelmed by the goings on around her, but as with any thriller, this hides a dark secret of her own.

Kerry White-Cheshire and Will Clark worked well to set the scene as Jennifer and Brian. They created a sinister atmosphere, awkward with each other and how events would unfold. Once the audience sees their true motivation, both get to perform some interesting material, and Clark presents the most natural character of the evening.

When Peter Hollands and Ruth Hawkins turn up as David and Corinne, they bring light relief as the bickering couple, with Hawkins getting a laugh with almost every line delivered. Hollands benefits from the twist in the tale, maintaining the humour as events conspire to reveal to him that whatever happens he will be next to die – until just the right moment, when the seriousness of the situation takes hold and a change of tone leads to a wonderful confrontation which offered nothing to laugh about.

I can’t help but notice that each time I’ve been to the Shaftesbury Theatre I’ve seen a play with no real knowledge of what it will be about. Every time the show has been great fun, well produced, and play readers for other societies could do a lot worse than coming to see what happens at Dawlish for inspiration in choosing plays for their future seasons.

Last review from the Shaftesbury Theatre: Ladies Who Lunch

For more information visit: www.dawlishrep.com

And on the subject of missed entrances: As You Like It – The Night I Forgot To Go On…

If you’ve seen this production either in Dawlish or elsewhere, please feel free to add your own comments below, although I would ask that you don’t give the game away on the big twist.

A new season opens for the Dawlish Repertory Comedy with a comedy by Tudor Gates, “Ladies Who Lunch”. Directed by Liz Wedlake, the production ran from 18 to 22 October 2011 at the Shaftesbury Theatre, Dawlish.

Social messages ahoy, the play opens with nice use of multimedia, as a big screen at the back of the set plays a short recorded insert telling us the moral of the story and introducing the key players over the next two hours. The recording was a very effective way to open the play, well put together and compiled as though watching any standard television news broadcast.

We are introduced to three women who are the wives of some of the world’s wealthiest men. Coming together from different sides of the world, they aim to raise money for their chosen charity on a scale like never before. £10 million is the target, which can be easily achieved by insider trading, using information they steal from their husbands. Putting liberty and marriages on the line, they are forced to consider blackmail, murder and money laundering, but why worry, after all, it’s all in a good cause!

The production is staggered across three continents as we visit the UK home of Lady Amelia Sasson, played by Linsie Kemp, the Australian home of Joane Stocks, played by Jane Cleave and the American home of Rachel Milchan, played by Karen Allen. These three ladies are the central performances, whilst Kemp provides the solid scheming brains behind the operation, Cleave benefits from the funniest lines and Allen revels in the most comic household.

Each gets their best material when they’re apart and we see them with their husbands. Nicholas Perrott delivers a wonderful performance as Harry Milchan, a man who can never find the words to describe how bad the situation is becoming. Will Clark plays Ken Stocks, the womanising Australian businessman with Peter Macklin playing Sir John Sasson to complete the UK partnership.

The husbands get one scene together that was something of a highlight in a production that really belongs to the wives. The confusion on their faces as they begin to realise the betrayal is great fun, with nobody being quite ready to accept they’ve been outplayed by a girl. They react in different ways, and the implications for each woman brings the play together for three tidy endings.

Also of note were two cheeky performances from Elaine Harvey as investigator Ms D. I. Wallis and Sophie Brimacombe as Geraldine ‘Gerry’ Sasson, the wayward daughter, falling in love with the wrong man at the drop of a hat.

With three countries to cover Liz Wedlake made great use of the set to reflect the different locations. The screen that opened the show doubled as a window for the performance, and the image out of the window changed to show which country we were watching. A nice touch that they changed with the time of day to get darker in evening and night scenes.

Each home was furnished on one wall of the set, with different art and furniture to show three takes on the interior design of the rich. By lighting the appropriate wall with the change of location, cleverly completed with nice swift scene changes to move just a few items of furniture.

The one item of furniture that was being moved between the three homes was a settee that was lovingly dressed with a throw and changing cushions as the venue changed. Whilst it was a very effective way of changing the set, the Jolly Lion was reminded of ‘Frasier’ and the chair his father brought into the flat that didn’t live up to the expensive surroundings. Perhaps all three households had a father hidden away who had insisted on bringing his favourite chair.

As the scene changes came thick and fast so the number of bodies on stage changing the scenery increased, the break between scenes was never too long, and the changing of the cushions became quite fascinating. There were also plenty of costume changes, and the ladies were always very well turned out.

A strong opening to the season that brought global issues and travels to a corner of Dawlish with great success.

For more information about the Dawlish Repertory Company visit: www.dawlishrep.com

Last review from the Shaftesbury Theatre: They Came From Mars And Landed Outside The Farndale Church Hall In Time For The Townswomen’s Guild’s Coffee Morning