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 The Theatreguide.London Review

In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others by streaming new shows, and various online archives preserve still more vintage productions. Even as things return to normal we continue to review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.

Murder At Midnight
National Tour 2025-2026 and Original Theatre Online   January 2026

Torben Betts' comedy-mystery is in the middle of a national tour and also available online through Original Theatre Online, so if it doesn't come to a theatre near you, you can watch it at home.

It is, despite ending with a stage strewn with bodies, amusing light entertainment, the proverbial Good Night Out (or In).

After a brief prelude in which police examine a multiple murder scene somehow involving two guns, a knife, a meat cleaver, a crossbow, vicious dogs and adulterated cocaine, the play flashes back to the night before to find out who did what to whom, in what order and why.

Much of the comedy comes from the Christie-like cast of familiar character types – Kray-ish criminal boss, dumb henchman, bimbo girlfriend, ditzy old lady, bumbling cop, and so on.

It's actually comforting to be among such stereotypes because it means it's all going to be a cartoon with nothing to really upset us even as some of them turn out to be killers, some victims and some both.

And, being such disparate types, they are likely to bump into each other in comic ways or get sidetracked by such distractions as the relative merits of Coldplay and Robbie Williams or which Kray was the gay one.

On the other hand the playwright gives some of the characters just a hint of surprise to hold our interest.

The bimbo knows she's a bimbo and is a little sad about that, the henchman has moments of existential despair, and the crime boss is strikingly smart and quick-thinking, adjusting to the plot's twists and reversals with impressive speed.

Under Philip Franks' polished direction, Jason Durr plays the boss as just unpredictable enough, while the other characters are all in their own ways bumbling enough, that we can't really guess how we're going to get to the bloodbath we were promised at the start.

Still, with the bulk of the play devoted to setting up the characters and the back-stories that bring them all to the same place at the same time, the main source of mystery and suspense is wondering when anything is actually going to happen.

It is only in the final twenty minutes or so that someone finally manages to get himself killed. (To be fair, the bodies then begin piling up with satisfying rapidity.)

The type characterisations do not really allow the actors much scope for development (nor would we want too much depth or variation from the templates.) Along with Jason Durr, Katie McGlynn as the girlfriend, Susie Blake as the old lady and Max Bowden as the inept cop are given the most opportunity to show off their skills.

Murder At Midnight will distract you for a couple of hours without ever challenging or engaging heart or brain, which may be exactly what you want from it.

Gerald Berkowitz