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Murder, Marple and Me
Published on Saturday, 18 August 2012
3

3 stars

Gilded Balloon Teviot (venue website)
Theatre
1-12, 14-19, 21-26 Aug, 3:15pm-4:15pm
Reviewed by Mathilda Gregory

 Parents or guardians should consider the content of this show if children are attending.

This cleverly-constructed show brings together Margaret Rutherford, Miss Marple (one of Rutherford’s most famous roles), and Marple’s creator Agatha Christie, to tell an inventive tale of showbiz and secrets. Janet Prince gives a versatile, restrained performance as all three characters, and shines throughout – even giving us an ad-lib when a suitcase falls shut unexpectedly. But despite her acting skill, the three similar characters did get muddled at times. Some more props to delineate the three, particularly Christie from Rutherford, would have been useful; I got it wrong once or twice.

The show opens with an intriguing prologue from Rutherford as she dreams of a disturbing event in her childhood. The exact nature of this event slowly unfolds through the show. But the fact that these are real events in a real person’s life, blended with the fictional detective work of a famous spinster of St Mary Mead, does jar at times. Rutherford, because of her past, at first declaimed the idea of murder mysteries as sordid – and when we see a real tragedy being chuckled over by an old lady while she knits, it feels like she could have been right. The tone of the show is distinctly odd.

Rutherford’s story is the key to this piece, and Rutherford is the real star. She is brought to life, strikingly real and full of complications. It is a shame that Christie, possibly an even more intriguing character, doesn’t feel so solid. Where Rutherford lives and breathes in front of us in this tiny space, Christie is a mass of contradictions and nothing seems to be revealed.

This is an enjoyable, solid show. It’s mainly hung around an intriguing real-life crime story, making it probably more plot-driven than you would expect from this kind of intimate character study. The final reveal is satisfying and shocking… and the show even ends with a genuinely laugh-out-loud punchline.

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These are archived reviews of shows from Edinburgh 2012.  We keep our archives online as a courtesy to performers, and for readers who'd like to research previous years' reviews.

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