A Play too far
Secondary Cause of Death, a ‘hilariously wicked’ play written by Peter Gordon set in 1939. This is was how it was described in the publicity. I cannot believe we paid £15 each to sit through this drivel, we debated whether to leave at the interval but thought we’d give it a chance, it might get better. (That was a bad decision, I will never get that evening back again).
There weren’t that many in the audience, about 60 or 70 or so. From our 3rd row seat I glanced back and saw them clearly (white and grey hair does reflect well in the lights)
By the second act (did it really only run for an hour and a half?? It seemed so much longer!) some of the oldies were raising the odd titter, but they didn’t get carried away. No load guffaws from a Malvern audience.
I should have guessed when I first read the programme and there wasn’t any mention of a plot, that there wouldn’t be one! The local paper reviewed the play but they were very kind. The heading read, “Old-school laughs retain their charm” and went on to say, “It’s comforting that this brand of humour can still raise a laugh…. it’s amazing that this end-of-pier stuff remains popular.” I think that says it all.
I got more of a laugh from comparing the photos of the actors in the programme to how they look now. You really couldn’t recognise them. Inspector Pratt was played by an actor who’s biggest claim to fame is playing a P.C. in The Bill for 8 months in the early ’90’s. Do you recognise him?
No, this is not a before and after photo, the first one is the photo in the programme and the other one is the one taken by the photographer of the local paper last week. Just about 20 years difference!
The other ‘big’ actor used to play Herr Flick in ‘Allo, ‘Allo, he seemed to be playing a similar part tonight (but he was supposed to be playing a Polish / German spy). To add insult to injury Jeffrey Holland (of Hi-De-Hi fame) played the parts of two men who were identical looking. Well we fell about laughing at the confusion that brought to the plot. (Not) Actually, the funniest moment was when a prop was dropped unintentionally and the actors corpsed.
The one thing that I have brought away from our visit to the Malvern Theatre is that we both must update our wardrobes. Jim will need to get himself a pair of corduroy trousers in either bottle green, dark red, burnt sienna, brown, grey or beige. He’ll have to wear them in a bit so they are ever so slightly baggy around the arse and knees and I’ll have to get myself a walking stick and learn to drop it loudly (and frequently) and /or trip people up with it.
From now on I think I’ll stick to am-dram productions.
P.S. You may wonder why I selected the front image of a wall and step ladder, it’s because watching paint dry has got to be more interesting than this play 🤪
