The first production of the Gage’s 65th year was a resounding success. Congratulations to the cast, crew and Leslie Parker’s excellent directorship.

Boris Smolensky’s budget repertory production of Murder at Priorswell Manor is looking decidedly shaky, being mostly held together by long-suffering stage manager Pat.  The cast, and the director, are more interested in their egos than in the play, and life imitates art when Boris’s wife, Renee, is murdered on stage.  So whodunnit?  Could it be dimwit Ginette, Boris’s current mistress?  Or Ginette’s ex-boyfriend Tim?  Or professional jealousy from Christa or Sophie?  And is Boris completely guiltless?  This play within a play provides bewildering clues, hilarious gaffes from the inept actors and red herrings galore to keep the audience guessing right till the end.  Simon Brett is well known for his radio plays, his Charles Paris series of theatrical thriller novels, and his crime series of Fethering mystery novels, so to have a stage play by him is a treat.