Cluedo 2 – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

Screenplay: Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran

Director: Mark Bell

Making a theater show based on a board game is definitely a challenge, though Cluedo at least it has the built-in scaffolding of a classic crime mystery. In 1985 Jonathan Lynn managed to make a cult classic film, and a few years ago an adaptation by Sandy Rustin, directed by Mark Bell of The piece that goes wrong fame, lighting bottled and successfully translated to the stage for the original Cluedo theater tour, which was a cavalcade of calamity and comedy, a side-splitting show with appropriate scene changes and a stellar cast and story. Can Bell, now with writers Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran, do it again Cluedo 2?

Unfortunately no.

Everyone knows how the game works – six colorful suspects gather in an English mansion following the death of the owner, Mr. Black. Move around the board visiting rooms to find out the location, killer and weapon of the crime, and the first person to guess all three and make a formal charge wins. Families around the world have turned to this amateur detective to avoid the inevitable arguments involved in playing Monopoly. For Cluedo 2 The plot is similar, but the traditional 1940s design has jumped ahead to 1968, as evidenced by David Farley’s wonderful costumes, which lean into the stereotypes and expectations of the era and juxtapose nicely with the classic, always-on-the-move look of the set. . set of fluidly moving pieces to create all of the board game’s well-known potential crime scenes (handily signified by a lighted board in the far background). So visually, the show is a treat.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the plot or much of the action. While Cluedo 2 includes a lot of laughs and genuinely funny jokes, all of which feel a bit dissonant tonally. The acting is intentionally farcical, with exaggerated movements and weird accents and technically very tight, but then a character will reveal their PTSD from Vietnam or their attempt to get child support for an ignored offspring, while others will flutter in the background. Each character’s mysterious secrets are either stated outright or painfully obvious from the start. The gags are repeated over and over again until they’re downright obnoxious (and if you’re not up on your Al Green lines, half of them will fly over your head anyway). The ending is predictable almost from the beginning of Act 2.

Although the scene skillfully trades the idea of ​​a large, winding mansion without actually having to be inside one, they go on forever and clearly pad the running time of an already short show, a painfully obvious attempt to cover up a disappointment . thin plot. It’s not clear if it’s bad direction, bad writing, or bad acting, but the whole show feels like you’re watching somewhat talented amateurs rather than professional theater producers. The acting exceptions are Liam Horrigan (Rick Black and many others) who directs Russell Brand and Matt Berry to great effect; Hannah Boyce (Mrs Peacock) as his perfectly fierce widow; and Dawn Buckland (Mrs White) whose comedic timing is second to none.

Shows based on existing properties are hard to make, and continuing shows based on existing properties are even harder. There can be 324 winning combinations in the table game, but we have to hope that Bell doesn’t want to try them all on stage.

Runs until Saturday 18 May 2024