Witness for the Prosecution - County Hall

Christie fans! The episode of Marple on at 6pm today - Murder is Easy - is the one with EVERYONE in it. Absolute thesp feast!

For those who still watch 'Eastenders' and loved a touch of Ben Mitchell, you can see him. Live. In court.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfiOvrQh3Mt

Wow, feels like I'm resurrecting a dead thread. Anyways, here are some of my thoughts.

Saw this on Thursday matinée. Staging it in County Hall, in the room that resembles a court is brilliant. Good story, great plot twists (that made a lady behind me audiably gasp) and good legroom in Row E. Seat courtesy of TodayTix, very acceptable. The main problem I had with the show, was that the actors sometimes mumbled in a way it was difficult to understand them (especially the Prisoner).
The room was running quite hot, but thankfully they used big fans during the interval.

The venue really makes this, it’s a pretty good staging of a classic. Imagine it’s cheap to run, because it’s barely had any promo & started fizzling in terms of audience numbers very early on in the run.

They have a couple of year agreed use on the venue bc it’s a dead space so can just keep rolling on if it’s cheap, I imagine.

38 - Witness for the Prosecution - London County Hall

Leonard Vole comes to Roberts and Mayhew saying he is about to be arrested for murder. Taking the case they find he has been "sponging" off the deceased elder lady and only his wife can provide him with an alibi - but she has her own plans and becomes GASP!!!! a witness for the prosecution!

Well the setting certainly bumps this up a point or two - a wonderfully staged creaky old pile of toot. I was in Gallery C and seat 25, now the problem being that the lady on my right moved after 30 seconds to the empty seat to my left as there was a ruddy great pillar in her way which meant she couldn't see diddly squit.

Aside from that though, a marvellous building and then an ingenious decision to set in the old council chamber, the layout of the seating gives this a feel that I've never seen before in theatre. I've seen things in the round, I've seen things from seats on the stage, I've seen things in the Globe, I've seen things where you are required to leave the theatre and spend time in the car park but this had an exceptional feel to it. A big pat on the back to whoever decided to host this in the old debating chamber.

Yes its entertaining and everything is well done but for me its coasting along on having such a wonderful setting. Maybe having seen and enjoyed the two film versions (and set fire to and stamped all over that utterly repulsive BBC remake of a few years ago) it was all too obvious what was happening. I was interested in how they would handle the twist and despite the nice use of lighting I could still tell what was actually going on in relation to the twist as isn't good enough to pull it off, which makes it all the more odd that the lead doesn't notice what is going on. Maybe he can be excused by being discombobulated by a trip to Limehouse.


The rest of the cast are all fine although Jasper Britton seemed to be tripping over his lines a few times, the set is sparse but effective and some of the audience get to be the jury - I do wonder what would happen if they decided to be gits and give a different verdict!!!

A setting inspired 8/10, stick this in the Wyndhams or Noel Coward and it would most likely by a 7 at best.

It’s just your normal bag checks. When I went to the venue the Security staff were pretty quick in getting the checks done so there wasn’t much of a delay waiting to get in. I’d certainly get there for around 45mins if you need to pick up your tickets at the box office as well.

Is this a sleeper hit or something? I keep forgetting it's on and I wanna see it. Not forgetting in a horrible way, it's just out of the way and you don't really hear much about it.

Always seem to be good deals on this at Tkts in Leicester Square etc.Agreed it has done well to have lasted this long .

I can't remember exactly how much you get approached but at the beginning the jury all got sworn in and someone at the end had to state the verdict (I'm pretty sure that was an audience member and not a 'plant').

Summoned last minute to a ‘workshop’ 🤮 with a silly o’clock start tomorrow I found myself in London tonight. Did I go to some cheap, brash, camp musical? No. “I Am Chaaaaa-hay-hay-hayyyy-chiiing” so I went to the County Hall to see this on a last minute TodayTix deal. 

LOVED. IT. 

Dead old fashioned but say what you like about Aggie she does a good plot twist. People who didn’t know the ‘denouement’ literary actually gasped as the twists came at the end. 
The venue is stunning, the seats are big and comfy with lashings of legroom. There’s even a sort of bench or pew in front of you to lay your butties out on. You could probably fit a McDonald’s on it, or a Chinese takeaway. Dead convenient. 

To answer the question about the jury seats , there’s a bit of interaction. Before it starts the court secretary makes them all swear on the bible but this is done as people are taking seats so it’s not part of the performance. Throughout the play when the court officials come onto the set and it’s all rise, the jury have to get up too. A lot of the dialogue is directed at the jury, and then at the end there’s a bit of nonsense where each jury member writes their verdict in a bit of paper and these are gathered by an official. There’s one person in those seats who has to stand up and read their verdict, so all attention is on them for a few words. 

Very enjoyable evening ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I'm Christie obsessed and this has been on my list for ages. I've just been informed I'll be seeing it for my birthday and I'm very excited.

It's been such a huge hit but you don't really hear people talking about it...

Reopens 14th September and highly recommended.