Lockdown has affected everyone with its isolation and inability to get out of the house to do the things we usually love to do, especially to enjoy live theatre. Producers have responded to this challenge by innovating in the online streaming world to various degrees of success and with varying sizes of budgets! Aria Entertainment has produced what it calls a nine-part “episodic murder mystery musical” with a very impressive and talented cast. Yet the result is a rather silly, often bonkers, spoof of the Agatha Christie genre which creates the feel of being in a very bad illogical dream with confusing characters and scene changes.
The problem is the format of the piece. Filmed in lockdown in what looks like each actors’ own homes and then cut together to give the appearance as far as possible that they are interacting with each other, it is a mishmash using split screens, simply redressed rooms to try and create some consistency and edit to try and make sense of the shots! Worse at times the audio is not quite in sync with the video creating a distracting visual effect. There is a well-made opening title sequence with appropriate Cluedo style music which sets the scene but when you watch all nine episodes back-to-back it does eventually dominate the viewing and become irritating!
