BAFTA REVIEW FOR "LOOK BACK FOR MURDER"

St Josephs Players latest offering was Agatha Christies ‘Go Back For Murder’, based on the great author’s book- ‘Five Little Pigs’. The first act takes place at five different settings that are depicted forward of the main stage and highlighted through effective lighting.

We are introduced to Carla Crale who is desperate to prove that her mother was innocent of poisoning her father. Carla is portrayed by society stalwart Claire Nash who played this character with ease and brought an assured, well studied performance to the stage. She enlists the help of Solicitor Justin Fogg played with by Paul Jameson who assists her in locating each of the witnesses to obtain their version of events. Jameson’s performance complemented that of Nash and they worked very well together.

As Carla sets out on her quest we are introduced to several other characters who all agree to revisit the Carla’s family home to reconstruct the events that led to the murder of her father.

The set for act two introduced us to Carla’s family home and what a great set it was too. It consisted of a sitting room that extended out into the garden. Well designed and cleverly lit to add great effect. This act was presented as a flashback to the day of the murder where the events of the day are revisited.

This is where the characters came to life and splendid performances from Karen Jones, Pauline Nevell, Keith Hindley, David Hodgkinson, Kay Unsworth, Karl Gerrard, Muhammad Al-Yasseri and Pauline Dowsett all combine to bring this murder mystery to a conclusion (of which I wont reveal!)

Director Donna Wood has gathered a very talented and well chosen cast who brought Christies script to life and portrayed the story with great aplomb.

Graham Cohen