If you like Agatha Christie and whodunnit performances, then don’t fail to catch Murder Trial Tonight.
Reflecting our interactive age, the jury, the theatre’s audience, is made to scan QR codes or log into a site through which we’re offered the chance to cast our votes. The set is simple, never straying from the courtroom, but the set design and lighting provide an atmosphere that’s fitting to a real-life event. The production company, Tigerslane Studios, indeed specialises in using immersive theatre to reproduce true crime events and did its job well.
The scene is set with the murder of a middle-aged woman, Megan Irvine, played by Lindsay Allen, through a short film showing the events leading up to her death. Then it’s up to us and the shenanigans of a courtroom. Here the Judge Amanda Livingstone KC, played by Karren Winchester, is a strong character but seems to allow some astonishing behaviour to go unchecked on the part of the prosecuting counsel, Miles Cavendish, played by Ian Houghton. Megan’s husband Dale, played by Gavin Molloy, stands accused of killing her, and it initially seems an open and shut case, at least up to the interval.
But during the trial, the intimations and rhetoric of the prosecuting barrister in which the accused is openly bullied about his sexuality leaves the audience aghast. This play is based on a real life trial that took place more than a decade ago, and one would hope that such bigoted behaviour would only serve to strengthen the case of the man who stands accused, if, for nothing else, because of the prejudice he’s had to endure when in the dock, as well as at the hands of the hands of the police. The assumptions and judgements are cringeworthy and certainly seemed to sway the audience making up a full house at Islington’s Sadler’s Wells onto his side.
The prosecution’s performance is strong, however, and after the second half, the case seems to be less certain because, despite the rather appalling rhetoric of the prosecution, there’s compelling evidence to back their case. The defending lawyer, Victoria Pelham, played by Alex Kapila, is sarcastic and points to the prosecution’s case being based solely on circumstantial evidence. But she stands in contrast to her more aggressive adversary and fails to grip the imagination of the jury. Has she done her client a disservice?
Like all good murder mysteries, there are compelling reasons to both find him guilty and to convict him. And like all good dramas, the dénouement is a revelation, both in how the jury voted in the real life case and the aftermath of the case and reasons for the murder being committed, as revealed in the film that closes the play. It certainly had us gripped and brought about gasps from us, the members of the jury. Above all, perhaps this production questions our own judgments.
The production’s next steps are Edinburgh and Glasgow, followed by various stops in England and Wales, before returning to London, providing plenty of chances to catch a good old-fashioned night of suspense.