Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall (Ensemble) ★★★1/2

Written by Mark Kilmurry & Jamie Oxenbould. World Premiere. Ensemble Theatre. Dec 1. 2023 – Jan 14, 2024.

Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall isn’t the first play to derive comedy from a night at the theatre going wrong, but it may be the first to do so with such a tender heart. As this murder-mystery unravels before your eyes, it never sacrifices its love for the world it’s skewering.

The Middling Cove Players are preparing for their opening night. Writer/director Shane Tweed (Sam O’Sullivan) has pushed this amateur theatre company into new waters by premiering a brand new play that he wrote, adapted from a self-published pulp novel he discovered after a particularly nasty break-up. What the cast don’t know is that this may be the company’s last show, unless they can impress the councillors in the audience to keep funding them, and giving them use of the hall. But when a Covid outbreak takes out half the cast, Shane must recruit anyone and everyone he can to keep the show going…

Midnight Murder… has all the elements you expect from a backstage comedy. Showmances, alcoholics, newcomers thrust into the limelight and a litany of technical mishaps. Long time member of the troupe, Barney (played by co-writer Jamie Oxenbould) has a bad habit of taking his clothes off when he’s panicked. Local real estate agent Phillipa (Eloise Snape) is trying to hide her attraction to Shane while boldly mispronouncing theatrical terminology. Stage manager Karen (Ariadne Sgouros) is only here to complete her community service requirements. This collection of lovable and cringe-inducing odd-balls set the stage for a slow-rolling disaster. The kind you can’t take your eyes off. When the cast shrug and say “The show must go on” Karen counters with an incredulous “Why?”. 

There’s a joy to watching good actors play bad actors, and this cast layer their characters-within-characters with gloriously broken motivations and desires. As this handful of well-meaning performers attempt to play thirteen different roles in the play-with-a-play, we are treated to daft accents, improbable costume changes and awkward, unintended pauses. Perhaps the biggest laugh came when the audience was treated to an actual momentary show-stop… It took Mark Kilmurry himself coming on stage and pointing out that it was genuine to break the spell of the play. They should work it into the script.

One thing is very clear, the Opening Night crowd, including just about every performer who has graced the Ensemble Theatre stage this year, was lapping it all up. Every small joke about life on the stage received riotous laughter. Knowing winks and nods were being shot across the stalls. Kilmurry and Oxenbould have laced this farce with the specificity of those who have come up through the amateur theatrical ranks. 

These kinds of backstage comedies are catnip to theatre-goers who love the peak behind the curtain. Seeing how the sausage is made can actually make you appreciate the artistry involved, and while this doesn’t have the tightly choreographed comedy of megahits like Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong or Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall has a genuine warmth to give depth to the frantic silliness.

As the saying goes, ’tis the season to be jolly, and this is a well-timed comedy to cap off a tumultuous year. The jokes may come at the expense of amateurs but they come from a loving place. Like the film Theatre Camp (on Disney+ now), this is a community laughing at itself, not outsiders pointing and laughing from the sidelines. Also, the harbour-side breeze and generous air-conditioning in the theatre make the scorching summer evenings much more pleasant all round.