Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Paul Duckworth, Pauline Fleming, Gillian Hardie, Michael Peace, Olivia Sloyan, Liam Tobin.

The seductive reasoning of being an armchair detective are honed and always alert, we are spurred in our efforts by the clues and chain of suspicion, and once we have narrowed down the suspects due to our insight and belief, we feel as though we could easily give the likes of Poirot, Morse, Tennison and Vera Stanhope a run for their money and give our friends and neighbours a reason to breathe easy as they drift off to sleep at night.

We all love a good juicy puzzle to solve, and we relish the opportunity to get one over on the perpetrator, especially if it is someone in our midst, in our community; that sense of restoration of justice is increased when it is visited upon the most heinous of crimes, that of murder.

Eddie is obsessed with crime, not committing it, but the application and mind-set of those that dedicate their lives to the solving of all that fouls the decency of life, from Columbo, Cannon and The Rockford Files, Eddie has outwitted them all and seen the villain put behind bars. Murder though is not neat, and with a wonderful nod to one of the most perplexing of Liverpool murders in the William Herbert Wallace case of 1931, Eddie and his exasperated family find themselves embroiled in a case of murder, most entertaining.

Liverpool’s Gerry Linford’s latest well-crafted production, Menlove Avenue Murder Mystery, is a feast of laughter and comedy and one that does not shy away from some of the grittier aspects of domestic life, wedded bliss and the aspect of what drives a person to murder for some sort of gain.

With Paul Duckworth, who maintains a sincerely held position as one of the finest exponents of the skill in his role as Eddie, Liam Tobin’s return to comedy after wonderfully disturbing performances in the lead role of Sweeney Todd is greatly admired, and with the excellent Pauline Fleming and Gillian Hardie, alongside Michael Peace and Olivia Sloyan, bringing the story to its rightful place as a centre-piece to beguiling and amusing comedy, Menlove Avenue Murder Mystery is theatre at its most pleasurable and informative; the absolute point of comedy in that it makes you think as well as laugh.

An entertaining production, an enigmatic whodunit!

Ian D. Hall