REVIEW

THE HOLLOW

WEYMOUTH DRAMA CLUB

Weymouth Pavilion

IT’S Agatha Christie time so that means people who hate each other gather together in a posh house so that one of them can be murdered.

Weymouth Drama Club have put together a fine cast of contenders for this murder mystery which has a body on the carpet and all the usual suspects who are investigated not by Hercule Poirot as in the original novel but by a pair of police officers.

As members of the Angkatell family reunite in the garden room, it soon becomes clear that an unpopular visiting doctor is going to be for the chop but it takes an entire hour for the deed to be done.

Meanwhile the audience is introduced to the guests who range from the eccentric to the absurd, not to mention the butler and the maid, all of whom are suspects in the killing and who get a kindly and respectful grilling from the police, this is fiction after all.

A welcome touch of humour comes in the person of Lucy, the lady of the house who is mildly crazy while love rears its head between a young couple, so all is not doom and gloom in this otherwise typical Christie scenario.

Under the skilled direction of Dennis Dunford, the cast make the best of an overlong script with Sue Conway, Daphne Payne and Rob Tripp leading the way while Derrick Leyton- Smith and Gemma Higgins provide the love interest.

Paul Gorsuch is the cranky doctor, Chris Walker is the tactful butler and Bob Mears and Pete Hutton are the sturdy policemen while Meggin Grant stirs everything up as the Hollywood star who lives nearby, well she would wouldn’t she? The cast is completed by Jacqui Martin and Julia Booth.

The production continues tonight and tomorrow evening at 7.30pm.

MARION COX