I must confess to never having watched EastEnders and therefore being at a disadvantage to the full house at the Everyman who had clearly come to see two of the soap’s biggest stars, Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace. I suppose The Perfect Murder makes the almost perfect vehicle for their first appearance together, live on stage.
Based on international crime best-seller Peter James’ novel, this adaptation by Shaun McKenna was, with its stars, as sure a sure-fire hit as you could anticipate with more twists and turns than Chubby Checker having a fainting fit. This production has been on the road for some time now but this is the first venue with the new cast, which is why we are reviewing it again.
The plot takes us behind the suburban closed doors of unhappily married couple Victor and Joan Smiley whose loathing for each other is convincingly demonstrated by a good half hour of bickering at the start of the proceedings. Smiley by name, but sadly, not by nature. Victor finds solace in regular visits to a Croatian tart (or sex worker as I believe they are now called) nicely played by Simona Armstrong. In fact Victor is quite smitten with Kamila and plans to murder his wife and run off with her. He is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and his mantra is always WWSD – what would Sherlock do? So, the murder is going to be perfect with nothing left to chance.
Unfortunately wife Joan also gets smitten, with a local taxi driver, a real geezer with a dictionary full of rhyming slang, played by Stephen Fletcher. They too hatch the perfect murder plan to rid themselves of poor unsuspecting Victor. And, wouldn’t you just know it, they strike first – literally. It is at this point that the play becomes farce with their efforts to wrap the corpse in black bin-liners and dump it in the shiny new freezer.
The afore mentioned twists and turns start at the beginning of the second act with Kamila, who has mystical, clairvoyant powers, sending young DC Roy Grace, convincingly played by Benjamin Wilkin, off in search of Victor’s killers even though no body has been found. Meanwhile, back at the house, Joan is getting a bit jittery imagining she is hearing Victor humming The Dambusters March around the house and catching a whiff of his cigar. There are some quite scary moments and a few loud screams before all is revealed in the final, twisty dénouement.
Despite the smoke effects and the flashing lights The Perfect Murder could hardly be described as a baptism of fire for the two soap stars. It’s a fairly easy going, typically British who-dunnit which taxes nobody but provides a bit of harmless bit of fun for all concerned. ★★★☆☆ Michael Hasted 3rd February 2016
