Crimes On The Nile is great fun, full of sharp dialogue, inventive visual humour and frequent episodes of outright silliness. New Old Friends is an award-winning theatre company run by husband and wife team Heather Westwell and Feargus Woods Dunlop. Their website declares that they endeavour to create ‘engaging, accessible shows that make people laugh.’ Crimes On The Nile has most certainly achieved that aim. This company has a penchant for writing affectionate parodies of Agatha Christie detective stories, and this show continues that tradition. It has all the essential ingredients, including a famous detective, a shooting, a poisoning, and a wonderfully eccentric selection of likely suspects. It is the first production created at their new rehearsal barn, and they have celebrated this development by making this their most complex and challenging show to date.
Their great detective is a lady of formidable intellect and with an even more formidable French accent, called Artemis Arinae. That’s a name not picked by chance, for Artemis is the goddess of hunting; and as for ‘Arinae’, I believe that’s a kind of parrot – surely a pun on Poirot? It is some time in the 1930s, and we find Artemis on a Nile cruise. The set depicts the promenade deck of a cruise ship; there are three cabins, surmounted by a rather grand clock. Sharing the voyage with Artemis are eleven other characters, each a splendid example of an instantly recognisable type, including a bluff Scotsman, a wealthy American, a somewhat crazed German doctor, and a dotty female novelist with a fascination for the ship’s captain that is more naughty than nautical. All eleven are played by just three actors. This might at first appear to be a serious limitation, but it quickly becomes clear that this shortfall in the number of actors available is the source of much of the play’s humour. There are improbably quick costume changes, accompanied by rapid shifts from one dodgy accent to another. Cabin doors and portholes open and shut with bewildering frequency, and character-defining props are swopped with desperate haste. There’s a touch of The Play That Goes Wrong, and a knowing wink in the direction of over-ambitious am-dram. This frenetic role-changing reaches a grand climax where the identity of the murderer is revealed. Artemis gathers all the suspects together, so there are times when there are at least ten characters on stage, but only four actors. How can this be done? The solution is both ingenious and very funny, but not to be revealed here.
If Crimes On The Nile has a weakness it is that the humour swamps the plot; you are likely to be too busy laughing to follow the intricacies of the story. No matter, for there is so much to enjoy, including a gloriously daft camel race, and a suitcase that doubles as a ferocious reptile. Fergus Leathem, Feargus Woods Dunlop and Heather Westwell have a great time playing all the other parts. They clearly convey what fun it can be to act, to dress up and play at being silly. Their enjoyment is infectious. At the Ustinov until the 26th of January, Crimes On The Nile then goes on tour to no less than twenty-one venues across the UK. Catch it if you can. ★★★★☆ Mike Whitton 17th January 2019
