Quote, dorset echo

WHAT does a famous whodunnit writer do when he is given only two days to write a new thriller? Easy, he gets his wife, secretary and a couple of servants to help him write it for him.

Bill Scott’s brilliant farce, loosely based on Edgar Wallace’s murder mystery, celebrates 35 years of touring by Cornwall’s Miracle Theatre Company in their premier performance of a national tour, a marvellously designed piece of work that never falters for a second.

The five characters, headed by Benjamin Dyson as Wallace, are roped in to develop a convoluted murder plot that changes every couple of minutes as they all join in the fun, swopping roles and moving the story from one daft scenario to another while they each come up with new ideas, even giving items of furniture unusual roles to play.

The starry cast give immaculate performances as they leap from hero to villain, and gardener to aristocrat with a dash of musical interludes to keep the pace flows along nicely.

As the thriller develops, there is even a sub-plot with Wallace and his secretary acting out a little private drama of their own in a riotous comedy that is full of visual jokes that can be guaranteed to keep the audience laughing all the way home.