"A Murder Is Announced" by Agatha Christie.

Ravenshead Theatre Group.

Ravenshead Village Hall.

An ad in the personal column of the local newspaper announces that someone will be murdered on Friday 13th October at 6.30pm at Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock. The lady of the house is convinced that it must be a joke but the village of Chipping Cleghorn, including Miss Marple, turn up to see what all the fuss is about.

Set in the 1950's where afternoon tea and servants are the norm for a well to do lady, everything takes place in just the one setting, so there's no scene changes, which keeps everything simple for the audience.

Now I am not going to give anything away here because I love the books, films and plays of Agatha Christie, but have never been any good at working out whodunnit. This is no different, thanks to the many twists and red herrings in the storyline. Within the first twenty minutes or so we get a body and a murder, so the advert came true. But all is not as it seems as we try and discover who the murderer is, and why the person who was murdered, was murdered.

Miss Marple is played by Karen Hall. It is uncanny just how much Karen resembles Geraldine McEwan as Marple, and she has all the looks, smiles and twinkles that McEwan gave us in the role.

Rob Hurst plays Inspector Craddock. As usual in these stories the Inspector always comes up second to Miss Marple, and here it's no different but there is great respect shown by Craddock for Miss Marple at the big reveal.

Sergeant Mellors is played by John Birch. This is only a minor role, and we only see John a couple of times throughout the play, but where would Craddock be without his sidekick?

Sarah Tryner plays Letitia Blacklock, owner of Little Paddocks. Letitia could be in line for a pretty tidy sum of money, and while we aren't 100% sure that she could be the victim, there is motive to bump her off for monetary gain.

Dora "Bunny" Bunner is played by Helen Brailsford. Dora is a wonderfully nutty character - which I mean in the nicest of ways - who keeps getting things confused, dates confused, people confused and names confused...or does she? Helen also provides some very comical facial expressions that evoke lots of response from the packed audience.

James Disney is Rudi Scherz, who gets a quick entrance, and an even quicker exit. More than this I'll not expand as we discover more about Rudi as the play unfolds!

Julia Simmons is played by Rachel Gascoigne. Julia who resides at Little Paddocks and is the sister of Patrick Simmons, but these siblings seem to be very close, when they are not bickering!!!

Patrick Simmons is played by Daniel Andrews . Patrick we soon discover has a secret of his own, but where does the secret fit in with the murder plot, if at all?

Helen Berry plays Mitzi, the maid and cook. Mitzi is described as a Mitteleuropa refugee who resides at Little Paddocks. Mitzi manages to get a few phrases wrapped around her neck, like being a "bucket-washer" as opposed to "bottle-washer" and when she was going to walk out advised Letitia that she was "giving her the sack". Mitzi provides quite a bit of the comedy, as well as a some of the twists! Wonderful accent which is kept strong throughout the whole production.

Phillippa Haynes is played by Lucy Johnson. Phillippa we find out works as an horticulturist (gardener) at the nearby Dayas Hall, and also is a resident of Little Paddocks. Listen carefully throughout this play as there is a hint or two about what secret Phillipa may be keeping from the rest of them.

Hazel O' Connell is Mrs Swettenham, who is just a little interested in the ad in the paper and wants to find out what it's all about. Well it's only a small village so she has to show an interest, hasn't she?

Eddie Gray plays Edmund Swettenham who is a writer of some intellect, who accompanies his mother, Mrs Sweetenham to the 6.30 appointment at Little Paddocks. Now we all know that by a certain age, no son wants to accompany their mother to an evening soiree, unless there is some reason for him to be there. Is he just being a good son, or is there another motive?

I've seen this play previously, a couple of years' ago, and being a massive Agatha Christie fan, knew it to be full of twists and turns; so many in fact that i couldn't quite remember just who did kill who and why. Ravenshead kept these secrets tight to their bosom, and even though I started to remember bits of the breakdown, it wasn't until the final twist did it all fall into place. This is why I've not gone into too much detail on the above character and actor descriptions, as I didn't want to reveal the whole plot.

Directed by Ann-Marie Butler. It states in the programme that this was a labour of love for Ann-Marie, and that really shows. it's not that hard to telegraph twists and turns but Ann-Marie, and her cast, made those twists and turns come at you out of the blue, and you really didn't know who to believe to be telling the truth. It's a tight production and even the scene changes were done with speed, also thanks to the Stage Manager, which also happens to be Ann-Marie, and her crew consisting of Rojin Altuntas and Aayla Broughton.

Set Design is by Martin Butler. Now this hits you square in the face as soon as the curtains open as it's so close to the front of the stage, making the area for the actors feel almost claustrophobic. If that was the intent of having the stage set as close, it really worked well. Everyone got a really good view of everything on stage. Not a criticism, by the way.

Lighting was by Iain Walton, and they do say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"; well the lighting has never been broke with this man, so why "fix it", another classy lighting design and operation.

Sound by Andy Cook. Now what i really enjoy about Ravenshead Theatre Group is that there's no need for any of the actors to be mic'd up as they all project brilliantly. So, that leaves the sound effects used in the play. This area was timed perfectly. I paid particular attention to the telephone, as some times a sound man may leave the "phone" to ring, maybe just a second over, but not in this show. As soon as that phone was lifted from its' receiver, the ringing stopped, and that went for every sound effect used in this production.

Costumes were provided by the cast themselves, and all I need say on that front is that this cast are a very well dressed bunch of actors; very stylish.

I don't think I've ever seen a production from Ravenshead Theatre Group that I've ever had to say anything even slightly negative about, and I won't be starting with this one. A wonderfully classy Christie crime thriller that has been created with the love that Ms Christie's novels deserve.

"A Murder Is Announced" is being performed at Ravenshead Village Hall until Saturday 5 October.