1991

April

Welcome  Coming Up  News Behind The Scenes Archive Contact & Tickets Links  < /p>

 

Back to List of Performances

To Previous Play

To Next Play

Death Walked In

A Play by Bettine Manktelow

Produced by Joan French

Cast
Angela Webster Sarah Trueman
George Carter James Stacey
Joan Mountstevens Lynda Leigh
Celia Randolph Jenny Hatfield
Cdr. Roy Boothby Aubrey Sinden
Eva Mountstevens Carol Ardley
Rex Randolph Richard Herrington

Synopsis

Celia Randolph, lonely and high-strung, is struggling against the odds to continue running her small country hotel. She is not helped by her charming and rakish step-son Rex. Joan Mountstevens, a competent school-mistress, and her tear-away young sister, Eva, are staying at the hotel, which represents something of a romantic pilgimage for Joan who, after ten years, still believes herself in love with Rex. Interference from her attractive sister, jealousy of Celia, Rex's flirtations, all under the watchful eyes of the charming ex-Intelligence Service Commander, lead to a suicide (or is it murder?). The climax involves the aged gardener and the country-bred maid in a case of mistaken identity and mislaid cyanide.

This is the first time that a script by Bettine Manktelow has featured in the Players' repertoire. Three more of her plays will make an appearance over the next decade and a bit. This play was first performed by the Acorn Players at The Granville Theatre, Ramsgate, in 1977, with the author in the cast as Joan Mountstevens.

The action passes in the bar-lounge of a small country hotel in Sussex (a favourite location for the author, it would seem ... see Murder Weekend , 2005).