Premiere cards need cutting and tweaking

15 November 2007

It was a world premiere - and it's not often I get to say that - when Blue Star Productions launched Murder in the Tarot Cards on east London audiences at the Kenneth More Theatre, a try-out for a proposed national tour next year.

The writer is Barrie Stacey, a colourful West End character who has produced two volumes of autobiography, several plays, numerous children's shows and pantomimes. Now in his 80s, Barrie has worked with the likes of Frankie Howerd , Jessie Matthews and Ruby Murray.

For many thespians, that would be kudos enough, but Barrie still has much to say.

The cast of Murder in the Tarot Cards includes several established performers with a long track record of nationwide repertory, television and West End credits, including Sadie Nine, whose career embraces West End musicals, TV shows, hit records in the USA and Russia, and her own daily radio show on BBC Essex.

This play has all the ingredients of a hit, and a plot with plenty of twists and turns - as you would expect of a writer with Barrie's history.

Ronald Sampson (Clive Ward) is murdered and the suspects include his three mistresses, played by Sadie, Pamela Flanagan and Helen Jeckells.

Or perhaps it was his exasperated wife Rachel (Jasmine Darke) or even his long-suffering mother-in-law (Suzanna Pope)? But, hang on - don't forget his rebellious, drug-dealing son (Hugh Darbyshire), who once threatened to kill him.

As suspects go, this is a cast of thousands...

As if you needed to ask, Mrs Sampson has seen the murder predicted in the tarot cards - but things were a bit misty at the time, so how can she know for sure?

The first act seemed endless and director Keith Hopkins would be well advised to wield a sharp pair of shears over this - there are many ways to do this without damaging the plot.

There was also some uncertainty with the dialogue that the over-use of a copy of Hello! could not quite disguise.

The action picked up markedly in Act Two, where a judicious reading of the tarot cards suggests there may be the germ of an engaging mystery inside this new play.

But it needs a bit more work before it is ready for a nationwide tour.

Clive Ward, who toured this summer as Charles Pooter in The Diary of a Nobody, played Sampson with some despatch and Sadie was workmanlike as mistress Queenie Blair.

Jasmine Darke did well as Rachel Sampson and Pamela Flanagan was convincing as Sylvia Crawley.

This piece needs some work if it is to win audiences around the country, but with a bit of tweaking - who knows?