Cast

Synopsis

This parody of the British Country House murder mysteries is set at eccentric millionaire Lord Rancour’s secluded mansion on a dark stormy night. A motley collection of six houseguests and four servants gather together and a series of unfortunate incidents ensues. A hilarious tale of mayhem with the occasional burst of song.

Directors Notes

This may well be my final production with the BLT. It’s not that I lack the commitment or the interest, but I hate the drive home along the Aire Valley road. Forgive me for going into reminiscent mode.

My first production was “The Wizard of Oz”. with the young Samantha Cross as Lord Growlie’s daughter. After a long gap there came “Lady Windermere’s Fan” with Phil Holbrough’s first acting role – the butler, and niece Gilly as Lady Windermere. Who can forget “Napoli Milionaria” with Stephen Brown and Jan Darnbrough, which ended at 10.40pm and some people missed their last bus? Or “The Man from La Mancha” in which Tony Reavill sang divinely and tamed his superabundant beard like Don Quixote’s without the aid of scissors? Stephen Brown cropped up again in “The Crucible” with my daughter Julia as his wife. Also, in it lovely Peter Walker memorably played his final role for BLT. “The Night of the Iguana” more recently was notable for losing its leading man due to illness, but it had shining performances from Liz Hall, Sandra Chewins and a very good supporting cast to buoy up the last minute stand in readings by Jonathan Scott and David Templeton. (Both gave marvellous spontaneous interpretations without rehearsal – miraculous). There is another production, but I’ll not name it because it didn’t really come off even though Jackie Scott was brilliant in it. (Even Homer slept!). Fortunately those who wield influence at the BLT have carefully forgotten it and offered me “Something’s Afoot”. Oops, I’ve not mentioned John Cohen or June Purdy with whom I always enjoy working, both in “Blithe Spirit”, him also in “Gaslight”.

I’ve been offered the part of Andreas in next season’s farce – “Tom, Dick and Harry”. Andreas is an eighty-one year old shabby Kosovan. He speaks no English apart from ‘allo’. Learning lines is a trial at the best of times, but when you’re speaking in a language you don’t understand, line learning is worse than a life sentence. I pity the poor prompter. David Templeton is directing; I hope he’s infinitely patient. Whoever thought I was ideal for the part deserves the only Kosovan word I’ve yet learnt: Perbindesh, pronounced perbindush, means ‘swine.’