Above : L-R – Murray Fane as Barney Simpson, Michael Mulvenna as Shane Tweed, Emily Newberry as Phillipa Chidley, and Kate Kelly as Karen Sharp in HAMLINGTON HALL at the Zenith theatre
This wonderful comedy, presented by Pymble Players, is about the Middling Cove Players preparing for the opening night of Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall, a play written by Shane, one of their members. His play is a parody of the classic Christie formula. There’s an isolated English manor house, an eccentric group of suspects, the reading of the old man’s Will and several murders.
Shane’s play has a large cast but seven of the actors come down with the flu! Yet the remaining actors believe “the show must go on”. Shane, who is also the director, and who also is in love with the star, doubles and triples up the roles so that each actor is playing many parts. And, the local councillors are attending to decide if the theatre group should keep being funded. The pressure is on.
The first half is this set up for Middling Cove Player’s performance of Shane’s play. The second half is the actual performance. As foreshadowed, many things go wrong causing much belly laughter from the Zenith audience. Characters fall down, furniture breaks, fires are started, smoke wafts across the stage, costumes become tangled in props, pants fall down, pictures fall of the wall and people drop dead.
This hilarious play was written by Mark Kilmurry (Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theatre) and actor Jamie Oxenbould. It premiered at the Ensemble Theatre in January 2024. This Zenith production is a fine example of artistic cooperation. The playwrights, David Spicer Productions, The Ensemble and the Pymble Players cooperated to give us a fast-paced theatrical farce, play-within-a-play murder mystery.
The Pymble Players was established in 1957 and in 2025 moved its performances to the Zenith Theatre in Chatswood, a few minutes from the train station and Metro.
This show is a marvellous example of community theatre. There are six theatremakers on the set construction team, three on the set painting team, four on the marketing team, Joy Sweeney’s terrific costumes selections, Sean Clarke on lighting design, Wendy Walker’s clever props and Casey Moon-Watton’s sound design.
The cast are Emily Newberry, Kate Kelly, Ciara Briggs, Michael Mulvenna and Murray Fane. They are on stage for two hours performing tricky physical manoeuvres, fast changeovers, accent changes and non-stop dialogue. Their comic antics are perfect. A great troupe of players.
The only comment for improvement. The play felt too long. There are only so many times that the audience will find pants falling down, or characters tripping over furniture, funny.
The show plays until 9th August 2026. Running time 2 hours and 25 minutes with one interval.
Production photography by Daniel Ferris.
