The Crooked Spire – Brighton Fringe

Filmed in 2020 during Covid, based on the novel The Crooked Spire by Chris Nickson and directed by Andrew Miller this 35-minute medieval murder mystery musical (honestly!) is a bit of an oddity to say the least.

All the actors are filmed separately in performed sequences and sometimes the editing and isolated performances from the cast is quite jarring.

The acting is very patchy throughout and unfortunately the actual musical content and vocal delivery is not that good – was there any need to include music in the first place? I genuinely think it would’ve worked better without the musical element and maybe focus more on monologues rather than have disjointed scenes of actors in isolated duologues. The script by Mary M Hennessy is fairly decent but nothing out of the ordinary

There’s actually a really good story here, I just wish they could’ve developed the plus rather than focus on the minus. I believe it was a missed opportunity to make something special.

I can see the production team and all the performers had the very best intentions but this just didn’t work for me at all. Until 27^th June via https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/the-crooked-spire-windlass-edition-152776/

Reviewer: Kiefer Williams

Reviewed: 20th June 2021

North West End UK Rating: ★