The advance publicity material describes the Twenty Club’s
latest outing at the Town Hall as “Agatha Christie meets the Addams Family” and
that perfectly sums it up.
A Tomb With A View by Norman Robbins is a traditional whodunnit
woven around a scary, crazy family called the Tombs not one of whom is anywhere
close to normal.
Their idea of good time is squabbling amongst themselves
like a pack of snarly dogs or bumping off visitors to the family home and
leaving them pushing up the marigolds outside in the garden.
They live in a big tumbledown mansion called Monument House
where we join the five Tomb siblings and their retainers – along with two mystery
guests – as they gather for the reading of the last will and testament of the
head of the family, a grim-faced, creepy old geezer whose forbidding portrait
hangs on the library wall.
It’s old man Tomb’s disembodied voice which narrates the
introduction to the play, raising the question whether he’s actually dead or
not.
And that’s what you continually have to ask yourself as one
after another of the characters bites the dust.
To reveal any more of the plot would spoil things, so I’ll say
only that there’s a nice little twist at the end.
Members of Twenty Club involved in the piece bring their
usual versatility to bear in every one of the many roles.
Paula Sutton, devoid of any feminine touches, is the butch Emily
Tomb whom one feels would like to sink her teeth into more than her favourite
red apples, while her sister Dora Tomb, who loves to poison people with her
home-brewed wine, is played with the perfect measure of eye-rolling madness by
Rowena Owen.
Underneath a mop of mad-scientist hair is Mathew
Oswald-Haggett who gives an accomplished performance as Lucien Tomb and another
club stalwart David Connelly couldn’t be dottier as Marcus Tomb who thinks he’s
Julius Ceasar and even wears a toga around the house.
Perfectly completing the lunatic row of Tombs is Sue
Griffiths as man-mad sister Monica.
Stepping into the Twenty Club limelight for the first time
is James Broderick. But on the strength of his neat portrayal of scheming
family solicitor Hamilton Penworthy it won’t be his last.
Lyn Aston is as competent as ever in the role of Agatha
Hammond, the sinister old housekeeper who has as many murderous tendencies as
the rest of them, and Hannah Edwards makes a very believable Anne Franklin, old
man Tomb’s live-in nurse.
Peregrine Potter, the nervous and shy visitor to Monument
House who turns out to be central to the action, is played extremely proficiently
by Twenty Club favourite Dan Pedley, and there’s a stylish performance from
Esme Sallnow as his up-market associate Ermyntrude Ash whom you can also catch
taking one of the lead roles in Llangollen Operatic Society’s forthcoming
production of My Fair Lady.
This rewarding little comedy thriller provides a great night
out and is a credit to director Jenni Lloyd and the whole behind-the-scenes
team who help bring it to the stage.
There’s one final performance of the play tonight at 7.30pm.
