Review of Murder in Little Grimley/The Proposal at the Square Tower

This is a perfect example of fringe/rep theatre at its best. In both plays, Patric Howe, Lee Ruttle and Leigh Cunningham double up, joined by Peter McCrohon and Sue Bartlett for Murder in Little Grimley. So welcome to the New Apollo Theatre Co, founded in 2007, a small group of dedicated but very talented individuals

 First up, The Proposal by Anton Chekhov (also known as A Marriage Proposal); a simple backdrop of white pleated half and full curtain drops, a light and bright stage with just a few props (chair, couch and drinks table). A very nervous Lomov (Lee) wants the hand of neighbour Natalya (Leigh), enters to ask her father Chubukov (Patric) permission, who is very receptive. Enter an innocent-like Natalya, and then the fun begins.

 Who owns a piece of land, before any mention of the proposal, descends into a waspish exchange of views, both stubbornly claiming ownership. Chubukov returns, Lomov storms out with heart palpitations. Natalya completely changes her mind when she hears of the proposal, Lomov returns, then it descends again over dogs, Lomov “dies”, recovers and Chubulov stops the bickering with a glass of champagne. All three performers were pitch-perfect, especially Leigh with her exaggerated reactions, the 30 minutes or so just flew by, a perfect starter, very well received

Onto Murder…., a whodunnit, of sorts. Another simple staging, here the whole cast create a chaotic dress rehearsal at a local theatre group that is rather too close to the truth, based on my own experiences, not to be a part documentary, so laughing along was dead easy. All the cast interacted with that extra emphasis you need on stage in delivering the lines.

Director Gordon (Patric), a rather bombastic person, plays a trick on gullible (or is she?) Joyce (Sue), pretending to have been murdered, helped by banana-loving Bernard (Peter). Joyce tries the same trick on Margaret (Leigh) but gets it all wrong. They rehearse about a murder in a joke shop, until word comes back that there had been an actual murder in the local joke shop. This is enhanced by a detective (Lee), until the twist is revealed that this was not-so-gullible Joyce’s payback on Gordon

Very sharp dialogue, some very funny lines and excellent performances made this a delight, with special mention for Leigh in her “Sarah Lancashire as Corrie’s Bet Lynch” role, beehive hair and rather large rear and all, and Bernard *think Nick Frost in Hot Fuzz” but all five were superb

Local rep is alive and well, make sure you look out for New Apollo Theatre on facebook and its next productions, you will not regret it, also www.squaretower.co.uk

Ken Ebbens

Presenter on Flash radio