Michael Holt Archives - North West End UK

The Mirror Crack’d – The Mill at Sonning

14Sep

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

The Mirror Crack’d – The Mill at Sonning

A murder mystery by Agatha Christie welcomes Miss Marple played by the wonderful Liza Goddard to The Mill at Sonning. The Mirror Crack'd is everything you want it to be; a murder mystery with moments of suspense and wit. This village is coming to terms with a Murder at Gossington Hall the home of a Hollywood Movie star Marina Gregg and everyone is a suspect! or are they? Fans of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple will enjoy it, and new audiences will experience a night of pleasure at the plot twists and turns of this murder mystery. Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation has breathed new life into this classic work of Agatha Christie; a refresh whilst staying true to the blueprint of the original. The scenes changes are slick as the characters ebb and flow from Miss Marple’s Living room, the film st...

Deathtrap – The Mill at Sonning

What would you do for a great play? In Deathtrap by Ira Levin the answer turns out to be nothing good. With all the aesthetic drippings of a juicy whodunnit and a cast of characters each less winsome than the last, this play is powered by plot twists but never gathers quite enough steam to even fog up a window. Written in 1978 and set in the then not too distant future of 1979 Westport, Connecticut, Deathtrap does little to induce nostalgia in viewers even as it convincingly harkens back to the era of rotary phones, carbon copies, and illicit homosexuality. Fans of the play or film adaptation of Rope will find a dynamic worth exploring here that is ultimately left tantalizingly under investigated by the severely dated script and frustratingly conventional staging. Director Tam Willia...

The Woman in Black – Liverpool Playhouse

I never thought I would laugh so much at a ghost story. I am definitely a fully-fledged all-singing, all-dancing and everyone lives happily ever after type of person when it comes to theatre, fear and but there is something about The Woman in Black that has always intrigued me. I never got to see the run at the Fortune Theatre in London, so jumped at the chance to experience the story on my doorstep. The book was written by Susan Hill in 1983, and whilst it is set in the 1950s (and 1920s) it does feel like a timeless piece. It could be set any time if the dates weren’t mentioned. However, there is definitely something about a Victorian ghost, that gives it authenticity and makes it spookier. With two actors in the cast, they needed to be at the top of their game, as neither spent...