Edward Alderton Theatre Home | News | This Season | Next Season | Bookings | Auditions | Members | Archive | History | Location | Links | Contact Us   Murder by Misadventure by Edward Taylor Directed by Paul Lay 14-21 October 1995 (7 performances) Scriptwriters Harry Kent and Paul Riggs have won numerous awards, but while Harry has saved and invested his earnings and now lives with his glamorous wife in a sun-drenched luxury flat high above the Sussex coast, Paul has wasted his money on booze and birds and lives in constant fear of his bookies' heavies. Harry wants to break up the partnership that Paul views as a lifeline, but Paul knows a sinister secret from Harry's past. Murder seems the only escape - a murder much like the "the perfect crime" they have just plotted for their latest movie... Cast Harold Kent Chris Manning-Perry Paul Riggs Ross Holland Emma Kent Gaynor Fisher Inspector Egan David Hampton Crew Stage Manager Chris McKeon Assistant Stage Manager Janet Hampton Set Designer Paul Lay Set Construction Milton Conn-Goodman, Martyn Brewer, Clarke Findlay, Nicole Antras, Grant Griffiths, Carol La Roche, Chris Perry, Stuart Pinel, Alex Board, Derek Goulding Lighting  Grant Griffiths Sound Carol La Roche Properties and Backstage Jenny Devonshire Technical Design Tim Hewitt Review Done to death by the patio doors Look closely at any traditional stage thriller and you soon realise the characters inhabit some strange parallel universe to our own. It is a place and time where circumstances will apparently permit the execution of heinous deeds without the rest of the population interfering, whether by chance or design. Take for example Edward Taylor's Murder by Misadventure, opening the new season at the Edward Alderton Theatre this week. His characters plan a murder much as real people might consider a spur-of-the- moment trip to Sainsbury's. Here we are to believe the proposed murder weapon is not your traditional lead piping, but a set of a patio doors. Mr Taylor must have agonised long about how the people from Everest could play a central role in the perfect crime. But then, an electronic chairlift became the guilty party in Hugh Janes' Deadlock. How long I wonder before a chiming doorbell is placed under the scrutiny of one of those nosy thriller detectives? But of course the deadly double glazing is just one clement of this play, in which a thriller writing partnership between the ostensibly self-assured and straightforward Harold and the drunken, confused Paul is on the rocks. They have enjoyed great success but now Harold wants out. He realizes his partner in crime writing is all washed up - and will be all the more so if he happens to plummet from the balcony of Harold's luxury seaside flat into the foaming Channel below. Having put his plot in motion. Harold hies off to the USA for six weeks with his collusive wife. But when they return home, they discover their dastardly plans have not quite worked out as they hoped. Taylor weaves an incredible maze of assumptions, red herrings and give-away lines into a play which teeters too close to the ridiculous. Paul Lay's direction plays it dead straight, which allows both for some giggles at the more outrageous twists in the story, as well as building tension. An accomplished cast is frankly worthy better dialogue than this play provides, but Chris Manning-Perry and Ross Holland as Harold and Paul, Gaynor Fisher as Harold's wife and David Hampton as the eye-rolling, grimacing police inspector ensure the play remains miIdly entertaining. Paul Lay's set design is robust but rather too stark for a luxury apartment. Darryl McCarthy Kentish Times | 19 October 1995