Review by Dom Wolfram

This production of Clue was performed in an attractive black box theatre inside the old engine room in Bendigo. I attended on opening night, Thursday the 20th of April 2023.

On entry the audience were welcomed in by friendly staff and some of the performers in character, and invited to take a thematic selfie on set with the props, pointing out who they thought might be the secret villain.

The set was fancifully designed and painted in a fashion after the original board game. The entire space was painted with the labelled rooms and the squared layout for the linear progression of each game piece.

Every time the characters needed to go into another room they would walk along the painted track, through movable doorways into the orange box labelled with the name of the room. Each time this happened it was an amusing reminder of the thematic premise.

Overall the style of the sets, props and costumes was ideal for distinguishing the over the top murder mystery game theme. .

The music was a creative piano soundtrack which was sometimes pre-recorded and other times performed live on the dusty old body manor piano by Jayden Lai, one of the two spirits of the house.

While at first the cast appeared to be small, more and more zany characters entered the house as the show went on and the plot thickened. While some of the characters had little time to perform, these short moments drove the plot forward and added much to the comedic and thrilling developments (Eza Bakker-Graham, Tom Symondson, Patrick Waters, Russ Holdaway) .

The lead performers all interpreted their characters excellently with Prof. Plum (Grant Finlay) being suave but pretentious, Colonel Mustard (Conor Cunningham) dignified but socially inept, Miss Scarlett (Jess Hunt) scandalously familiar, Yvette (Samantha Congdon) coquettish and ridiculously french , Mrs Peacock (Claire Sexton) protesting far too much, Mrs White (Kerry Turple) a rigid ice queen, and Mr. Green (David Prince) perhaps just a little too unassuming for the scenario.

The cook (Kayla King) and the Spirits of the House were charmingly sinister and did a great deal to help set the tone, which though comedic, was sinister and suspenseful at the start, and as the show progressed the suspense dissolved away to be replaced by unbridled farcical chaos.

Special acknowledgement to Michael Dullard as Wadsworth the butler who not only triumphed over an unbelievable amount of fast paced dialogue and monologue but also showed incredible range and energy throughout his performance.

It was only natural that the show ended with a few shocks and surprises and a great final act from the cast

Congratulations to synchronicity productions on this innovative and fun experience, where the directing team (Evalina Woodward, Saari Frochot-Chauhan and Chris hobson) had evidently considered and designed each moment and characterisation carefully.

Images Courtesy of https://www.synchronicity.org.au/