Murder at Midnight | Darlington Hippodrome
1st April 2026 | Review by Stephen Stokoe
After recently reviewing opera in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Shakespeare’s Hamlet it was nice to let my hair down last night as it were with a good farce in the form of Torben Bett’s Murder at Midnight. Having already seen the sister play Murder in the Dark and thoroughly enjoyed it, I was looking forward to seeing this one. I was certainly not disappointed however, this production is very different, although similar in the way that they start since the audience has no idea what on earth is going on.
As the audience enters they are greeted with a cross section of the front of a sizeable family home with four distinct rooms: a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and an office. The bedroom and the office are decorated for their respective main occupants with the former being somewhat girly and colourful and the latter a veritable shrine to the pop god that is former Take That star Robbie Williams.
It is with Robbie’s music that the show begins which is sharply interrupted by uniformed police officers entering followed by a whole crime scene investigation team revealing to the audience that a bloodbath has taken place on New Year’s Eve. The sardonic back and forth from the police officers (Bella Farr and Andy McLeod) leaves us in no doubt whatsoever that what we are about to learn about these events will be chaotic, manic, and downright crazy.
The story is then taken back to late evening on 31st December for the gathered observers to make up their own minds. I mentioned Madama Butterfly and Hamlet earlier, this was no less of a blood bath but in terms of the story I am largely going to leave it at that because of the risk of spoilers.
There is some stunning acting from the ensemble cast but it is Bett’s writing that really shines through with each character having a repeated line or phrase tying into the zany story line which moves as quickly as a pack of hungry guard dogs. There is also a pack of hungry guard dogs although while they remain unseen, their presence is felt throughout the story.
It is always a pleasure to see a cast working well together under the watchful eye of director Philip Franks. Their sense of camaraderie and closeness shone out from the stage from the entrance of batty matriarch Shirley (Susie Blake) and her nervy but earnest carer Cristina (Iryana Poplavska) through her gangster son Jonny (Jason Durr), his trainwreck of a sidekick Trainwreck (Peter Moreton), his new wife Lisa (Katie McGlynn) and her gentleman companion Paul (Max Bowden). To be fair, it would be remiss of me not to mention the final cast member – the hapless Russell (Callum Balmforth.)
Durr is in his element as the ruthless gangster and rules the roost over everybody with humour, menace and the occasional crossbow. Bowden is a wonderfully inept undercover police officer who is trying to redeem himself while fighting off his own desires to get his leg over. McGlynn flip flops with her affections between her new beau and her current husband and Susie Blake is wonderfully eccentric as the superstitious, bonkers, yet potentially dangerous old bat. Balmforth adds youthful verbiage to the proceedings and his eagerness to make off with a tidy fortune to fend off the attentions of loan sharks earns him his just desserts.
My star of the show has to go to the whiskey guzzling, coke snorting yet sensitive and ultimately lonely Trainwreck whose moniker fits him like a glove. Moreton puts in a performance that oozes subtlety alongside some less-than-subtle actions. He has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand from his entrance to his dramatic curtain call. I really admired his performance and the skill it took to bring this multi-faceted character to life.
The design (Colin Falconer) of this production is almost a character in itself and along with some superb lighting from Jason Taylor and sound from Max Pappenheim makes this a fest for the eyes and the ears and adds to the exquisite script from the playwright.
I have yet to be disappointed by anything I have seen produced by Original Theatre (in this production in association with Joshua Beaumont and Huw Allen) and I will certainly be looking out for future productions.
It is fitting that I saw this production on April Fool’s Day and I suggest that you do not make the mistake of missing it while it plays at The Darlington Hippodrome.