Shear Madness
Directed by Sally Hughes
The Mill at Sonning
Star rating: 3.5
This part-improvised comic murder mystery, set in a hairdressing salon, has been around in some form since the 1960s and has been running at Kennedy Center, Washington DC since 1987. And it works because it’s flexible and nothing is set in stone. It moves with the times and the place.
This version is set in Henley-on-Thames, stuffed full of local references and jokes and it’s more or less current in terms of costumes, mobile phones and the occasional topical joke. The exposition before the fun stuff starts is a bit obvious and laboured in its humour but maybe that’s deliberate.
Two men, who turn out to be Thames Police (more knowing jibes) are having their hair cut in a unisex salon by Tony Whircomb (Daniel Cane – deliciously camp). His colleague Barbara (Rosaleen Burton – suitably estuary) is doing a wash and blow dry for Mrs Schubert (Natalie Ogle) who is OTT local gentry. Also in the salon awaiting his turn is the urbane, quite plummy Edward Lawrence (Jonathan Markwood).
Tony lives upstairs where he has a running quarrel with Isabel Czerny a world famous retired pianist in the flat above. Then Mrs Czerny is brutally murdered. So which of the four people, who aren’t Thames Police, did it?
Cue for houselights and audience interaction which most critics detest but actually, on this occasion, it’s well managed and very funny. The audience is invited to ask questions, make comments or draw attention to detail and the cast react to it with verve. Paul O’Neill as police officer Nick O’Brien manages the questions, improvises and makes it work – a fine job.
Actors are used to working to a carefully rehearsed script. It takes a completely different sort of skill to run with a show like this and all six of them do it well – even when it’s just a facial expression. Obviously they have funny lines ready to use if the situation arises but they also have to think on their feet without letting it show – and they do.
Eventually there’s an audience vote to decide the identity of the culprit. Thus there are three (Mrs Schubert is excluded) different rehearsed ending to accommodate this. So I wasn’t surprised to learn that an invited audience was present during the final week of rehearsal so that Hughes and her cast could work on the reactive parts.
Brave imaginative work – and more entertaining than I expected it to be.
