The Search for the Hooden Will

Reviews

A pantomime whodunnit? One step up from the comedy thriller, and a refreshing change for Blackmore Players' traditional Christmas show.

And home-made through and through. Doubtless countless sparks and sound operators have been convinced they could do a better job than the playwright and the director. But at Blackmore they've gone one further and actually seen it through from page to stage.
Producer Andy Appleton - sound effects - and director Tony Pavitt and Dave Smith - lighting - are the creative team behind The Search for the Hooden Will, a gleeful blend of Dame Agatha and Dame Trott, with sly references to the classics of the murder mystery - not to mention Cluedo - as well as all the panto tropes we rightly expect.
The script has some very clever touches - the supermarket sequence, the ingenious denouement - as well as a geeky Star Wars moment and a House Song nicked from The Kinks.

Like all the best pantos, it's a gender fluid affair. Patrick Magee is the lady of the manor, and Linda Raymond makes an excellent job of the Chief Inspector, supported by "the cream of the force": a promising double act from the two coppers Rebecca Smith and Jenny Pavitt, and two cute police dogs, Jean Appleton's endearing Nickel and Christian Vince's puppyish, extrovert Carbon.

Keith Goody has fun switching between the Hood brothers, while Simon Haskell plays "every Tom, Dick and Harry" in support. Barbara Harrold and Martin Herford both bring impressive panto experience to smaller roles. Juliet Ware, Rhys Burrell and Emma Thwaite are the Hood children, with Charley Magee very watchable as the barrow-boy Freddy.

There's a train sequence, of course, a lovely street-scene backcloth, and, best of all, a duet with a phantom projected onto a bed-sheet.

The musical numbers range from the Music Hall - Underneath The Arches works very well - to Suzi Quatro, Born To Be Wild to Ilkley Moor. Where Did You Get That Hat is beautifully choreographed, with a Charleston big finish.

The pace could be slicker, cues picked up quicker. And the stage left exit proves annoyingly awkward [for the cast, too, probably]. But the show is often witty, wacky and clearly delighted the vocally enthusiastic first night crowd: "It's the theatre that people want!"

I don't think I'm giving anything away by revealing that the wedding walk-down is replaced by a jail sentence, and the last line is "Everybody duck!". But if you want to know whose finger is on the trigger, or what's in the will, or what the Inspector's name might be, you'd need to get one of the few tickets left for this "universal premiere" or wait for the inevitable movie ...

Michael Gray

A pantomime Whodunnit? Not what I was expecting to see but it was an interesting concept. The story was well written but I am still not sure that it was suited to a pantomime format. It seemed to fall between two genres and didn’t quite hit the mark with either.

It was written by Dave Smith who also co-directed it and there were some good lines of dialogue. I think it might have been better to have been produced as a straightforward ‘whodunnit’. Somehow the ‘pantomime stuff’ that the authors obviously felt obliged to include didn’t really enhance the production.

The company worked very hard to give strong performances, Keith Goody (doubling as Lord Hood and Colonel Hood) produced some hilarious expressions when both characters were expected to be on stage at the same time. Patrick Magee played Dame Marigold Hood (the obligatory pantomime dame) well; but I didn’t really see the point, apart from the fact that a panto needs a dame! There are some strong lady performers in the cast and, had this not been a panto, I think any one of them would have been excellent in the part.

The rest of the Hood family, played by Juliet Ware (Rose) Rhys Burrell (Luke) and Emma Thwaite (Leia) were all good and Charley Magee (Freddy) was a strong performer. Although I was not sure about the ‘Principal Boy’ aspect of that character. I liked the idea of Simon Haskell playing the butler at each of the locations and there was some good dialogue covering this. Linda Raymond played the chief inspector and her two sidekicks, played by Rebecca Smith (PC Hall) and Jenny Pavitt (PC Eve) milked the script for every drop of comedy. Jean Appleton and Christian Vince played two ‘police’ dogs, Nickel and Carbon, and that brought another nice comedy element into play. The Principal line-up was completed by Tracy Foster, Barbara Harrold and Martin Herford, playing 5 parts between the three of them! The small ensemble playing servants, guests etc., worked extremely hard.

I thought some of the song choices were not really appropriate to the action on stage, although they were, in the main, well performed. The technical aspects of the show were very strong but, as the authors are both theatre technicians, I expected no less. The scenery was very well done and the authors clearly know their stuff as they gave plenty of time for the major changes to take place.

Costumes worked well, sound effects and lighting were good and I think the audience enjoyed the production. Personally I felt that the cross between a whodunnit and a panto didn’t really work but it was still enjoyable to watch.

Tessa Davies, NODA