Deaf on the Nile
About the Production
Look out! He’s… Behind You! (Oh no he isn’t!)
Take a priceless diamond necklace, a luxury Christmas cruise down the Nile, a collection of very suspicious characters and add… a pantomime dame?
Theatre Workshop Coulsdon present a pantomime with a difference!
Comedy is guaranteed as the mystery unfolds. Can you unmask the villain before the familiar-looking Belgian detective, Hercules Toilet, does? Or will you be too busy laughing?
Is it Shelby and Lara Smythe-Rotter, the elegant Riviera thieves?
Lady Pokingham-Proditt, whose last five husbands have all met untimely ends?
Hesketh and Petunia, the runaway lovers with a dark secret?
The seedy Reverend Pinchme and his secretary Miss Chaste, on the run from blackmailers?
All will be revealed!
A festive show of songs, slapstick and skull-duggery! Not to mention a show-stopping turn from Mrs Eliza Wallop, our dame with a difference, as ‘she’ powers out a truly operatic rendition of ‘Nessun Dorma’!
The Cast
Behind the Scenes
Image Gallery
The Reviews
Scintillating Spoof
A spoof murder mystery panto? The very thought may have many theatrical purists quaking in their boots. But for those in the know, ‘Deaf On The Nile’ came courtesy of Theatre Workshop Coulsdon, who have something of a track record for making the implausible possible, and this was no exception.
Skilfully penned by Mark Taylor, who also spent the evening at the piano with his four-piece guitar and percussion ensemble, this was two hours of well-directed, side-splitting entertainment.
With a smartly conceived plot featuring a delightful mixture of dastardly murderers and thieves, fronted by Paul Ford’s ‘Rene’ (from the BBC sit-com, ‘Allo! Allo!’ ) -esque Belgian detective, Hercules Toilet and Adrian Martin’s effective panto Dame Eliza Wallop, this whodunnit sat well alongside the plethora of classic one-liners, the inevitable audience participation, not to mention a madcap chase around the pyramids complete with a Mummy, Santa Claus and a snowman!
This was slapstick at its best, with exact timing and pin-point delivery with a supporting cast of hilarious characters.
Peter Bird and Dawn Lock made superb cads as the Smythe-Rotters, whilst Mike Brown and Fiona Harrison, Duke and Duchess of Mummerset, were perfect upper-class buffoons. Richard Lloyd and Neil Grew provided further Music Hall gaiety as ‘Cheerful’ Chester Winklepicker and Mr Chuckles, making this a production in which practically anything went.
Musical numbers covering the scene changes, ranging from ‘Putting On The Ritz’ to Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’, came in the form of Penny Payne’s amusing Marti Caine-styled Madame Fifi de-Boeff and her Academy Girls.
But the jewel of the evening belonged to Adrian Martin for his breath-taking rendition of Nessun Dorma.
Peter J Reed for The Surrey Mirror and Coulsdon and Purley Advertiser
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