Playwright
Brian Clemens
Director
Angela Ledsham
Overview
Murder Weapon is an ingeniously plotted, highly tense thriller from Brian Clemens, creator of The Avengers and author of Inside Job, Without Trace and Strictly Murder. After much delay due to COVID-19, Cheriton Players were delighted to at last stage this postponed thriller in November 2021. We played to packed houses over four nights.
Angela Ledsham (director) took her team on a long and arduous journey to get to the final night, after eighteen months of delays and a cast change but she was delighted, she said, with the end result.
The synopsis:
When Chief Constable Bligh accompanies her friend Diane Tulliver home to Dysart Hall after a night at the opera they arrive to a horrifying scene. Diane’s husband Paul has been shot dead and ex-convict Charley Mirren is standing over him bearing a gun. It appears to be an open-and-shut case for Jessica Bligh, but as she and her colleague Inspector Fremont probe further they discover all is not what it seems. Through a series of flashbacks and re-enactments of the events leading up to Paul’s death, we soon find it is not just the murderer’s identity that is in question.
Kevin Gover of Winchester Today reviewed and said: “The coronavirus pandemic led to a scaling back on the amount of seats available, but I personally found it very comfortable. An extremely enjoyable evening, back where we belong in a live environment”, adding “a team of seven play the characters in this play, and I thought they all worked very hard and very well as an entire team effort. The ingenious twist from Clemens is that you start with a murder which all seems cut and dried, and then work backwards to see if that really was the case”. For the full review, click here.
We were delighted to welcome two new faces to the Cheriton stage – Bernie Lomas as Diane and Jim Glaister as the evil Hugo. Jim was our Director of Photography for the last live production, Diamonds are For Trevor.
Director – Angela Ledsham
Producer – Jan Conway
Cast
Jessica Bligh – Helena Gomm
Inspector Fremont – Paul Willcox
Constable Walters – Paul McTaggart
Charley Mirren – Tim Conway
Hugo – Jim Glaister
Diane – Bernie Lomas
Paul – Glynn Williams
Show pics by Craig Robertson, behind the scenes shots by cast and crew. Photo montage by Paul McTaggart.