Cluedo is a perfect play to get an audience of a certain age, who grew up playing Waddington board games, to return to live theatre for an entertaining fun evening with plenty of laughs. It does not require them to exercise their “little grey cells” to solve the murder mystery as in an Agatha Christie play but simply sit back and let the farcical mayhem wash over them.
The origins of the play are visible throughout. It is a British play based on a US film based on a British Board game and writer Sandy Rustin and Director Mark Bell remind us constantly of this route to the stage. The six characters and six murder weapons from the Board Game are at the centre of the story and are led on a merry dance around the various nine rooms of the Boddy Mansion including the secret passage. The Butler, Waddington and maid Yvette are retained from the film and Jean-Luke Worrell brings the energy and exaggerated style of Tim Curry to the stage as the Butler and is matched by Laura Kirman’s maid pretending to be French. They generate plenty of laughs as they lead the ensemble cast around the Mansion. Worrell takes his time in his delivery, savouring the silliness and knowingly engaging the audience with side glances and milking each pause. They have together created a highly stylised dramatic language to stage the play with freeze frames, actors moving furniture and Keystone cop movement and chases which provide the physical comedy.
