Original Theatre brings their latest collaboration between writer Torben Betts and director Philip Franks to the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, as part of a UK tour. It follows Murder in the Dark (2023) and Murder at Midnight (2025).
Our guest reviewer Claire Hogan heads over to check out the production.
We join Peter (Rufus Hound) at home ahead of a planned evening with his wife (Carla Mendonca) and estranged daughter (Beth Lilly), celebrating his comeback as his persona, Darius Divine, a renowned TV medium. With many ghostly happenings and consequential revelations, we do not have to wait long for drama, with Torben Betts’s script coming straight out of the blocks with the surprise arrival of Peter’s mistress (Aisha Jawando).
The stakes are high from the start and continue to rise as the drama unfolds. With his mistress having no intentions of leaving, Peter risks his marriage, his reputation, career, and the chance to rebuild his relationship with his daughter.
This is a fast-paced farce that continues to twist and turn throughout the play. We see Peter contort with fear at the implications of every new revelation. There is also the additional tension of Peter’s eccentric mother-in-law (Susie Blake) adding to the chaos. Her renditions of Gilbert and Sullivan songs add a delightful whimsy that disarms you for what is to come. It would seem that Peter is not the only one to be able to converse with the dead.
I cannot share the real gems of the plot (for there are many); but this is definitely a show that has you on your tenterhooks throughout.
Hound has the right balance of victim and rogue as Peter. Although the evening’s moral compass of “you reap what you sow” is at the heart of his demise, Betts still has us empathising with the extremity of the consequences. This role fits Hound like a glove. It is no wonder, given that he recently wrote and performed in The Mesmerist, a play about a magician and mystic in which he performs many psychic “tricks”. This experience has undoubtedly added to the authenticity of his portrayal of the part.
Betts has given us four outstanding strong female characters with Peter’s wife, mistress, daughter, and mother-in-law. Mendonca as Susannah is a force majeure, as Peter’s wife, business manager, and fixer. She confidently moves through the play like a puppet master, in control of the situation and Peter.
Mendonca as Susannah is a force majeure, as Peter’s wife, business manager, and fixer. She confidently moves through the play like a puppet master, in control of the situation and Peter.
Jawando, as Peter’s mistress, gives a compelling performance of the wronged woman, demonstrating she has both beauty and brains, while Lilly’s Jen brings another layer of tension and emotion as Peter’s abandoned daughter. Peter’s history as a philanderer catches up with him. Having left Jen’s mother for Susannah when Jen was only five, he is now forced to negotiate with a stranger who knows exactly how to push his emotional buttons.
But it is Blake as Miriam, Peter’s eccentric mother-in-law, that stole the show for me. Like Miss Marple, she has seen Peter’s duplicitousness from the start. Her bumbling manner allows her to hide in plain sight as the evening unfolds. An outstanding performance that can only have benefited from this being her third collaboration with Betts and Franks.
The rest of the cast give sound performances that made the audience leave, surprised, satisfied, and happy with the outcome.
This show is enhanced by Franks’s direction, alongside a strong technical team and effective special effects.
I would recommend this show for anyone looking for a play that entertains and surprises. It does require you to suspend disbelief at times, and just follow the journey, rather than analyse the plot. An enjoyable production from Original Theatre in conjunction with Theatr Clwyd.
4.5 stars.
The Other Side of Murder is at Churchill Theatre, Bromley, until 7 Nov and then continues its tour – currently booking until Mar 2027 at https://www.murderplay.com/.
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan