REHEARSAL FOR MURDER, staged by Castle Hill Players, is a highly entertaining night out at the theatre – an intriguing plot in the true “murder mystery” genre with plenty of twists and turns. I doubt many audience members picked the murderer, I certainly didn’t. It is adapted by D.D Brooke from the television play by William Link and Richard Levinson.
The playwright Alex Dennison (Thomas Southwell), walks onto an empty stage and turns on the lights in preparation for a reading of his new play Killing Jessica. The director, producer, actors, and others associated with the show come onto the stage. It is not long however, before we discover it was exactly a year since these same people were involved in another play by the same playwright in which the leading lady died on opening night.
We go back to that fatal night and see how Monica Welles (Lola Carlton), the leading lady and fiancée of Alex, apparently commits suicide. The other actors and those involved in the show go back to Monica’s apartment for a party at the close of opening night but after hearing bad reviews of the play they leave, and it seems Monica then jumps off the balcony to her death.
As the reading of the new play progresses startling connections to what Alex believes was the murder of Monica appear. Each character gets to read a scene and various motives for murder appear. There is the director, Lloyd Andrews (Brett Joachim), the producer Bella Lamb (Gina Willison), the leading man David Mathews (Ben Wheeler), actors Leo Gibbs (Brett Watkins) and Karen Daniels (Ella Rose Titterton) who may or may not be married, all of whom appear to have strong reasons to kill Monica. Sally Bean (Sophia Laurantus) is Alex’s secretary and gives light relief to the play and other characters complete the scene such as Ernie the theatre minder and Mr Stanton a removalist (both played by David Senior) a man in the auditorium (Chris Scarpellino) Loretta (Melissa Applin) and a policeman (David Went).
Director Grant Brennan brings this talented cast cleverly together as the relationships among them twist, and new sides of their characters are revealed. Set design by Maureen Cartledge allows us to move smoothly between the rehearsal space and Moncia’s apartment. Lighting design, Casey Moon-Watton and sound design George Cartledge heighten the noir 1950’s detective feel of the show as does the costume design by Leone Sharp.
Of course, as the play reaches its climax all is not as it seems, but you will need to see the play for the truth to be revealed.
REHEARSAL FRO MURDER plays at the Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Showground till 21 Jun 2025.
Production photography by Chris Lundie
