Saturday, April 12, at Steeple Bumpstead Village Hall
Review by Derek Bish
I AM of the firm belief science fiction should usually be kept to television and movie screens where computer graphics can make it realistic.
Not only was this scienc
e fiction brought to the stage, it was also a debut writing attempt for the Pollington family.
However, everyone involved in this intergalactic murder mystery must be congratulated on producing a show of the highest quality.
The writing was so good it was impossible to tell it was by relative novices to the play-writing scene.
Everything flowed beautifully through three acts with the first two devoted to giving the audience hints about the murder before act three revealed the person who did the dastardly deed.
Ben Butcher (captain Bill Reiker) led the cast brilliantly, from his acrobatic fall in the first scene when the spaceship Columbiad crashed on Menkar 7 to the dramatic revelation at the end.
Butcher was one of seven youngsters in the cast with Hayley Thorn (Deanna Troy), Emily Sutton (Penny Robinson), Sam Whittome (William Robinson), Sammy Mann (Trinity McMillan), Tim Falder and Daniel Hughes (both droids) all proving the players have an extremely bright future ahead of them.
Eleanor Hughes, as the voice of the ship's computer, Polly, put in an excellent performance.
The senior generation is pretty bright with David Phillips (Tom Anderson), Steph Manning (Dr Ellen Ripley), Lilo Phillips (Padme Amidala), Robin Hughes (John Robinson), Sheila Bronson (Maureen Robinson) and Ann Gladden (Prof Tricia McMillan) all performing admirably in the sort of play that most had never taken part in before.
Particular mention goes to Robin Hughes who did a marvellous job of making his character the arrogant, obnoxious sort of passenger that gave everyone a motive to kill him.
On top of the excellent writing and acting, the set was perfectly designed and would not have looked too out of place in many sci-fi shows while the sound, lighting and everything else was of the highest quality.
