Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Cluedo” which is at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn until Saturday 16th April
If you like, I can tell you who did it right now. The Butler did it. And by that, I mean he completely stole the show.
Jean-Luke Worrell has been recruited from the highly successful “The Comedy About A Bank Robbery” to lead the cast on their merry dance through the stage adaptation of the 1985 film, based on the 70-year-old board game called ‘Cluedo’. And he is amazingly brilliant as Wadsworth, the butler.
He is excessively smiling and wild eyed. His limbs are twice as long as is reasonable, and his movement is mesmerising. He also has a speaking voice you could listen to all night. Which is just as well because at one point he is called upon to recap on everything that has happened so far, playing all the rest of the casts’ parts himself.
“Cluedo” is perhaps best describe as a jolly silly pastiche of one of Agatha Christie’s ‘posh house’ plays. It is a dark and stormy night at Boddy Manor and six disparate guests have been invited by letter to stay there at the request of the mysterious host. Each is given a Cluedo pseudo name and a clichéd character clue. Miss Scarlet is indeed a scarlet woman, plying her trade by night. Reverend Green is unbelievably clumsy. Miss Peacock is the drunken wife of a corrupt politician. And so on.
This production anglicizes the slight story and places it in 1949, just after the birth of the NHS and still within the rigours of post-war rationing. The Lynskey scandal is mentioned. A peer of the realm had been detailed to investigate corruption around rationing … but was found to have been doing dodgy dealing himself. This permits the introduction of blackmail to the play’s set-up and provides several characters with something to try to hide. Nothing changes!
As an opening gambit, Wadsworth gives each guest a welcoming present; a dagger, a candlestick, a length of lead piping, and so on, and announces that the “game may now begin”.
This is not an intellectual exercise. There is no point in trying to outwit the author. Whilst the show is fast-paced and pantomimical, it does lack the inventiveness of Mark Bell’s previous production “The Play That Goes Wrong”. Doors open and close for no great reason. Plot lines are lost. As a murder mystery, ‘Cluedo’ is largely clueless.
It is, however, very lively and hilariously funny and the athletic cast squeeze every corny joke out of both Sandy Rustin’s script and the slick set changes, which allow every room in the board game to appear on stage before our very eyes.
The show is naturally formulaic (it is board game after all!) but it is presented by a committed and expertly synchronised cast … where the two TV stars (Daniel Casey from ‘Mid-Summer Murders’ and ‘Coronation Street’s’ Michelle Collins) to their great credit, forget their fame and muck in good and proper.
Theatre Severn is to be commended for bringing ‘Cluedo’ to Shrewsbury. Their reward last night was a full house audience which was well and truly swept along by the show.