Out of Sight... Out of Murder

Reporter: Colin Meredith
Date online: 11 June 2008

This was my first ever visit to St Ann's Players at the Parish Hall in Belfield and what an entertaining evening it proved to be. Their production of the mystery comedy 'Out of Sight…Out of Murder' had an interesting plot and some challenging characters for the company to play.

Set in a very old mansion somewhere in Yorkshire, the plot revolves around an author's decision to go there to write his next best-seller.

Neil Bamford as Peter Knight, the author, had to be the driving force of the play as slowly the characters in his book started to appear in the mansion.

Someone who was definitely real was Dorothy Kenney, who played the know-it-all cleaner Minna. She delivered some very funny one-liners helping set the tone for the evening of comedy and mystery.

Following a thunderstorm, the characters begin to appear as the audience is introduced to the usual stock characters in most murder mysteries.

Judith Mansfield played the forceful Lydia, who explained to the author and the audience just what was happening as more characters began to arrive. We even had the typical English butler played with great presence by lan Mansfield, who was complemented by the dizzy comic maid Addie, played by Joanne Frost.

We are then put in the picture as to the reason why all these characters have come together for the inevitable reading of the will at midnight. Tension mounts as more characters from his book emerge into the scene. Susan Howarth was a suitable naive young girl, Kay, who was the love interest in the plot opposite the energetic Dick Stanton played by Andy Mckay.

In between their arrival Mavis Shellard entered as the grumpy, prudish Fiona Babcock, putting a downer on things whenever she could. Finally, just before midnight Jordan Dillingham, played by the very experienced Bert Price, arrives to read the will and is subsequently the first to be murdered when he is poisoned by a drink intended for the author.

After the interval, we are then trying with the help of the characters, to discover who is the murderer as more of the characters are done away with. There is a nice twist as the author begins to be attracted to Kay Kelsey, who is of course unobtainable as she is only a figment of his imagination. Thanks to producer Molly Leach, the company looked to be enjoying working together and as a result the audience appreciated their efforts and left thoroughly entertained.

St Ann's Players
Parish Hall, Belfield