"A Fete Worse Than Death" by Richard James.

Bonington Players.

Bonington Theatre.

Billed as a murder/mystery/comedy, the story is a simple one, or that's what I initially thought! During a village fete a murder is committed and it just so happens that the "celebrity" chosen to open the fete is none other than a TV detective, Inspector Brady. Well, who better to solve the murder than a detective? There are many of the village folk who would have grounds to dislike Malcolm, but who would it be, and why? Jealousy? Infidelity? Revenge? Marrow envy? Take your pick, but can Brady solve the clues and get his man... or woman?

Malcolm is the contender for Thornton's biggest marrow, Molly, as well as the newly appointed Chairman of the fete committee. We find out that he is not a very nice man at all and has amassed quite a few enemies, so it's not going to be an easy task to whittle down the suspects for his demise! Eddie Januszczyk plays Eddie whose self-importance and pride is made obvious. So obvious that it's difficult to work out who wouldn't want to do him in.

His wife, Bunny, is played by Charlotte Hukin. Completely overlooked by Malcolm, who pays more attention to the size of his marrow than his wife, who we discover has looked elsewhere for attention, making a possible two suspects straight off. Bunny, probably as indicated by her name, is rather posh, and does not like being overlooked by Malcolm. Love the accent that is used for this character.

Nigel, played by Adrian Bacon, is an historical re-enactor, and has embarked on an affair with Bunny, although you get the feeling that he is taking the affair much more seriously than Bunny is at times. Could jealousy be a strong enough motive for Nigel to re-enact a murder scene? Brilliant costume for Adrian, but I bet he is just a tad warm under all that fur!

The fete organiser is Trish, played by Abi Taylor. While she does all the spadework for the event, Malcolm likes to take all the credit. In the play we find out that, even after all the time and effort Trish has put into the fetes over the year, she seems to have been stabbed in the back by the other committee members when they voted for Malcolm as the new Chairman. Has Trish had enough of being Malcolm's doormat, and has the virtual stabbing in the back made her re-enact the act literally?

Father Mike is the vicar, and a rival to Malcolm in the size of his marrow stakes. Just how important is it to the vicar to usurp Malcolm? They seems to be a few skeletons in the vicarage closet, and why does coffee play such an important part in his quest to win the largest marrow contest? God only knows, but is all we discover about this man of the cloth enough to send Malcolm to his maker? Alex Brimelow dons the dog collar and plays out a quite trendy vicar.

Miss Parmenter is the spinster of the Parish, and a budding Miss Marple. She loves the Inspector Brady character and TV series and has learnt all that she knows about being an armchair sleuth from watching Ray Martin in the role of Brady. Michelle Bellamy is quite meticulous as Violet Parmenter as she dissects everything to do with the crime, proving that you can pick up lots of useful tips by watching TV.

The "star" of the fete is Ray Martin, a fictional TV detective Inspector Brady, who has been hired to open the fete and judge the local produce. When the dastardly deed has been committed, everyone looks to the TV detective to solve the mystery. Have they forgotten that he is only a TV actor, and not really a detective? Can he solve the mystery without a script? Wayne Hill plays the TV celebrity, who grasps every opportunity to line his own pockets, charging a fiver for a selfie, I ask you, but is he, and his biggest fan Violet, able to solve the riddle of the deathly fete? Or should that be fate?

Directed by Chris Gardner, who also designed the incredibly good set. It's all set inside a marquee, where you can also see outside to where the village green will be. There are tables of everything that you'd expect at one of these fetes, jam, vegetables, cakes, the raffle stall, and I have it on very good authority that everything, well almost everything, on show is edible. 

The amount of props for this production is massive. The set dressing is also spot on. The success of both these areas are thanks Jeff Casterton, Carol Hill, Glynis Hunt, Gail Tomlinson, Linda Whitehurst and Charlotte Hukin.

There's also the speaker that relays the fete announcements as well as the typical brass band style music that you'd expect to hear at one of these village occasions, all making for a very realistic village green style preservation society do.

The marrow though is massive! What a big one! I've never seen one as big as that before! 

Costumes are also sourced by Charlotte Hukin.

Sound design by David Goatham. We get all the usual sounds that we'd expect from an outdoor gathering including the opening speech over a crackling P.A. system, transporting everyone to a sunny Thornton village green on a Saturday afternoon. Nice choice of music to top and tail the play, plus a brass band style that ran through the music in the interval.

Lighting design by Peter Hodgkinson, so I knew that this area of the production/technical team was also in very safe hands. Some nice effects used near to the end of the play.

This is another really fun play. A play that I've not seen before, and a play that I failed to guess whodunnit. There are some fun characters here and some interesting motives, some more believable than others, but the whole story is great fun whether you guess whodunnit or not. Another thing is that Bonington Theatre was packed for the opening night of the play, which is always a great sign at the start of any play's run.

"A Fete Worse Than Death" is at Bonington Theatre until Saturday 18 January, but get your tickets quick as I was advised that there are only single seat tickets now available for the rest of the week.