A hardworking cast is the best thing about Torben Betts’s ‘theatrically ludicrous’ Murder at Midnight

United Kingdom Torben Betts’s Murder at Midnight: Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, 13.10.2025. (JPr)

What a strange evening Torben Betts’s follow-up to the wonderful Murder in the Dark I saw last year (review here) was. It begins very oddly with Robbie Williams’s ‘Let Me Entertain You’ with spoilers from Bella Farr and Andy McLeod’s police officers who are investigating the crime scene that was the home of Jonny the Cyclops. He is played by Jason Durr and he describes his character in the interesting programme as ‘a one-eyed drug dealer, pig farmer, and notorious gangland killer, whose past is catching up with him.’ We find out that Jonny is also a big Robbie Williams fan too. We will never see the police officers again, but McLeod is there to say how it is all ‘Absolute carnage’ and how ‘if some joker had written this as a play or something you would never believe it’. Amongst the victims needing identifying there is someone shot with a gun, someone else with a crossbow, another who has been stabbed and there is only one survivor, a ‘poor devil on the way to the station as we speak.’ For me the police officer’s words were quite prophetic because in the end I never quite believed what I saw, though I doubt I was ever supposed to.

Torben Betts explained ‘I was aiming for something both very dark and – hopefully – quite comic, which is a tricky business especially on stage. Philip Franks (our director) has described it as “Feydeau as written by Tarantino” – a comparison I’m more than happy to accept. I wanted to create something dangerous yet theatrically ludicrous, in the spirit of [BBC TV’s] Inside No.9 at its best. Whether we’ve collectively managed it remains to be seen – it’s certainly a style I have never attempted before. And may never again. It’s definitely a risk.’ Well, mentioning Feydeau and Tarantino proves rather highfalutin for Murder at Midnight when it is more The Play That Goes Wrong and the Confessions of films, ‘very dark’ it isn’t, though ‘theatrically ludicrous’ it certainly is!

I have seen a number of similar plays at the Palace Theatre (all reviewed on this site), Dial M for Murder, Looking Good Dead, The Mirror Crack’d and Cluedo 2 had their good moments and while Picture You Dead wasn’t so great, it was Murder in the Dark that was best. Intriguingly two actors I had has seen before in these were now in Murder at Midnight: Jason Durr in Cluedo 2 and Suzie Blake in The Mirror Crack’d and Murder in the Dark. Murder at Midnight tours on and off until next April and does the title entice an audience expecting – as I was – a more traditional murder mystery like those listed above? If so, they may leave the theatre as mildly amused but somewhat bemused as me.

Colin Falconer’s set is on different levels: a living room with glass doors leading out to what we understand is a driveway guarded by ravenous (unseen) dogs named after Robbie Williams and his greatest hits; slightly higher is a ‘man cave’ and even higher up is a bedroom. It allows events to take place simultaneously and occasionally confusingly especially if characters are talking about different things at the same time.

Jonny’s life of luxury is largely funded by drug dealing and we see him return early from a trip with his cocaine-addict gofer Trainwreck in tow. He is back for ‘the bongs’ of New Year’s Eve and to surprise his elderly mother Shirley (who according to the programme ‘may or may not have dementia’) and propose to his long-term girlfriend Lisa. She however has gone to a fancy dress party and come back to have some fun with Paul who is dressed most of the time as a priest. Lisa does not realise he is actually a police officer working undercover and hoping to redeem a less-than-stellar career by discovering the fate of Jonny’s former wife, Alex, who disappeared five years before. Shirley lives in the house with Jonny and has a carer, Cristina, who is Romanian. There are some oh-hum ‘jokes’ concerning Cristina’s nationality and she has problems of her own with an acquaintance called Mr Fish (aka Russell) who in a clown mask arrives to rob Jonny so he can clear his debts before the loan sharks he owes money to come for him. Quite what his relationship is with Cristina is not entirely clear.

Cue some of the hallmarks of classic farce including one-liners, much rushing about with the exaggerated characters trying to avoid each other, mistaken identities, near-incomprehensible plot twists and physical comedy, including some fumbling between Lisa and Paul on a bed (requiring an Intimacy Director to be employed). How big is the house?  Seemingly Jonny never hears Lisa and Paul when in his den with Trainwreck. Also, Paul is listening to his superiors through a visible earpiece, yet Lisa never discovers that when she has her hands all over him. Very odd for 2025 is some jarring use of homosexual slurs (including ‘Perry Como’) and Mr Fish’s clown persona is referred to as ‘Coco’ when how many in the audience will remember Coco the Clown and not think it refers to something else? To show its connection with The Play That Goes Wrong even when the play – having got more and more absurd – is supposed to take a darker turn near the end, a gun (deliberately) misfires to much hilarity despite [spoiler] much blood.

The cast works very hard and seems to be having fun which helps make the time pass even if you don’t buy into any of it …as I certainly didn’t. Generally, the characters are two dimensional and Jason Durr constantly pays homage to the late John Challis (of Boycie fame) and Challis was an admired Captain Hook in pantomime and Durr with his eye-patch also seems to be auditioning for the role. Near the end we learn of his traumatic childhood, though Durr’s performance keeps that well-hidden earlier, more Torben Betts’s fault than Durr’s. Susie Blake is Jonny’s dotty mother who has a penchant for tarot cards and a belief that the devil is abroad, and she plays it to perfection. Also doing the very best with what she is given is the delightful Kate McGlynn as Lisa who is a happy-go-lucky, not-so-innocent abroad happy to filch off Jonny but guilelessly hoping for true love with the rather incompetent Paul, who gets an engaging performance from Max Bowden. There is some believable desperation from Callum Balmforth’s Russell and a good deal of exasperation and incredulity over the turn of events from Iryna Poplavska‘s Cristina. I found Peter Moreton‘s Trainwreck transformation from Bernard Bresslaw-like gormlessly to crazed maniac and more [no spoilers here] the most ridiculous thing about Murder at Midnight …which was not short of ridiculous things!

So, what did happen to Alex all those years ago and how does almost everyone end up dead after midnight? Well, I leave you to find that out for yourself if you want. Regardless, it all ends rather pretentiously with Cristina quoting from Shakespeare’s The Tempest ‘Hell is empty and all the devils are here’, so make of that what you will!

Jim Pritchard

For more about what’s on at the Southend Theatres click here.

Featured Image: [l-r]  Katie McGlynn (Lisa), Iryna Poplavska (Cristina) and Peter Moreton (Trainwreck) © Pamela Raith Photography

Cast:
Jason Durr – Jonny
Suzie Blake – Shirley
Max Bowden – Paul
Katie McGlynn – Lisa
Callum Balmforth – Russell
Peter Moreton – Trainwreck
Iryna Poplavska – Cristina
Bella Farr – Police Officer
Andy McLeod – Police Officer

Creatives:
Writer – Torben Betts
Director – Philip Franks
Designer – Colin Falconer
Lighting designer – Jason Taylor
Sound designer and Composer – Max Pappenheim
Fight and Intimacy Director – Ruth Cooper-Brown for Rc-Annie
Dance – Matthew Whennell Clark with Leah Vassell