Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] Park Theatre

I enjoyed this immensely at the matinee yesterday. Sandi Toksvig gave an astonishing performance, more tonally consistent (a gentle yet probing Hercule Poirot type) than anyone else in the show. You would have thought it was completely rehearsed, so good was she, demonstrating her skill as an improviser, used to thinking on her feet.

When someone is as good at appearing rehearsed as Toksvig is, it is like a time-delayed miracle, (delayed for about a second by having to absorb lines from an earpiece), and you feel dazzled and proud of their performance, but at the same time delighted when they are thrown, especially if the person being thrown is as humble and witty and gentle as Toksvig is. Some of the biggest laughs were when Toksvig addressed her lines to the wrong person (who knows if she was misdirected, undirected or simply couldn't keep up lol)!? Other huge laughs came from the rare but wonderful moments when the guest star was told to "improvise" something, moments which Toksvig responded to with aplomb being in the improvising game. So it was like Poirot, with teasing, a little corpsing, a few wry asides, and a feeling of sharing a unique bond and adventure between performer and audience.

Other performances were more variable, with the best comic performance by a league given by Patrick Ryecart as the stuffed up, bumbling, blurt-out-anything-you-like-whenever-you-like, wheezing, steaming, extreme-received-pronunciation posh head of household, Digby Dangle. He gets the most natural laughs per line of anybody, bar the special guest star. The best, most appealing naturalistic performance is by Natasha Cottriall as his precise and pleasing, precious and amusing daughter, Felicity Dangle.

All rehearsed performers struggled with their material somewhat due to an impreciseness of tone and insufficient characterisation. This is unsurprising given the method of conception of the piece, which was created by first writing it straight, for five days, as a genuine Agatha Christie style mystery, focused on plot over character, and then adding jokes of all varieties here, there and everywhere, in a scattershot and inconsistent way.

The very best possible laughs, which rely on an interplay of plot on defined characters, (such as in "The Play that Goes Wrong" when the brittle Henry Shields gets frustrated, or the ebullient Henry Lewis is overenthusiastic, or when the whinging Jonathan Sayer grates, etc) cannot be achieved here due to the lack of characterisation, and overemphasis on plot and mystery alone. To the bare bones of a pedestrian strait-laced mystery plot are added baser less effective laughs, such as double entendres (eg My name is Watt. What? Not What, Watt, etc), sound gags (eg French windows), and lots of mugging and jumping in and out of character.

The human element is key to enjoying this show, and is very much provided by the guest star, with a show a kind of psychological test of who and what they are under pressure, that allows the audience to admire their skills, and relate to the underlying personality under pressure of performing and imrovising.

Sandi Toksvig made for a marvellous subject, and the overall show was a 4 star delight.

PS: Getting tickets: -


So far there have been 5 shows, and the evening shows have featured the acts that are the biggest and widest draws. They have been:-

(1) Jim Broadbent - opening night
(2) Gyles Brandreth - first matinee (reviewed by Billington)
(3) Damian Lewis -second night
(4) Sandi Toksvig - yesterday's matinee
(5) Catherine Tate - yesterday night.

If I was trying to see Gillian Anderson, I'd probably try for a Saturday night, as those tickets were the most desired, most expensive, and quickest sold, and probably feature the wealthiest audience willing to bid the most money for any special prizes (2 people bid £1000 each yesterday, after the show, to spend an evening at QI with Sandi Toksvig, and have a drink with her afterwards). The whole run is a Park Theatre fundraiser, so it would make sense to schedule the biggest stars for the keenest and wealthiest audiences, assuming of course that Gillian Anderson is actually available on a Saturday night and hasn't insisted on being tucked away into a matinee lol.

Good luck, everyone.

Finally success today and managed to get a standing ticket! Really looking forward to it, I see quite a few of the 'big hitters' have already been but can't wait to see who our detective is!

Always considered the Park as one of my cheapest Saturday theatrical haunts and definitely one of the least elitist, quite often do a matinee in the 90 and the evening at the 200 with one of their cheap margherita pizza’s in between, usually works out as less than £25 a ticket for both shows.


Did not consider this due to the random element and higher ticket price, now tempted, will maybe try for a matinee day ticket next week and leave it in the hands of the Theatrical Gods.

Oops, didn't mean to start a class war. Sorry, Lynette.

To be clear, I don't consider wealth a badge of honour or dishonour, and consider most human beings (and squirrels) to be generally wonderful, regardless of wealth or lack of it.

I was just trying to help the guessing game of when Gillian Anderson will be scheduled, and I figured the pricier tickets would probably get her, since this is a fundraiser primarily, and therefore it behooves the Park to keep their biggest givers as happy as they can.

Anecdotally, I remember attending a pricey Saturday night of Letters Live at Freemasons Hall, and hey presto, we got the Hiddleston/Cumberbatch motherlode!

So, actually, I'm delighted when others (or myself) coughs up the big money, whether or not they are wealthy (and objective "wealth" is relative, anyway, which is why I used the term "wealthiest," a term I now substitute with the word "givingest" so as, to defuse the class war I inadvertently started lol), since the Park is a great project, and generally unsubsidised.

Besides which, any audience would be lucky to have the Board Godmother, effortlessly civil and endlessly amusing, in its number!

I am going next Saturday, closing night and should be able to work out from a process of elimination who I will be seeing beforehand...

Tonight John Bishop. Funny anecdotes during and in the q&a raised extra £650 for drink with him after photo etc.
The play could be tightened up. But not bad.

Last night was Gillian Anderson

Well at closing night tonight we got Adrian Dunbar and I have to say I think we really lucked out. Did a phenomenal job with a couple of truly remarkable moments. Enormously funny - yes, it's messy, it's scrappy, the "play" as it is doesn't really hang together and has its longeurs, but the energy created in a small space by a talented actor being asked to perform at their limits was hugely enjoyable.

I think tonight's actor was genuinely unprepared for the show - Adrian had flown in from Belfast arriving just an hour before the show and I genuinely don't think there was any preparation in advance.

The co-creators said in the Q&A that this might have another life somewhere else, and that there might be something else with the same format to follow. I suspect it's something where the impact lessens as it's repeated, but at this stage I think it's a fairly genius concept - but very much as a charity fundraiser rather than as a real play.

This will be back from 9th Feb to 12th March. From Instagram it looks like the same premise and a number of the same guests/celebrities.

I got a standing ticket for the first night of this yesterday, the detective was Jonathan Pryce. I really enjoyed Whodunnit 1 but I've got to say I wasn't really won over by the sequel. It was only the first performance so hopefully they'll edit it down a bit but the setup (before the celeb comes onstage) was really long, I didn't look at my watch but I would say it was at least 40 minutes before they came on stage, and honestly without the celebrity it's just a mildy amusing, daft play. So many of the jokes and situations were repeated from Whodunnit 1. It was slightly late starting but the first half came in at nearly 90 minutes! The second half was more enjoyable with some funny moments but it finished at 10.30pm which was tough going for those of us standing up! It's for charity so I don't want to criticise it too much, I think if you didn't see the first Whodunnit you'll enjoy this version because all the jokes will be fresh but if you saw Whodunnit 1 I think you'll find Whodunnit 2 an inferior show. In my totally non-expert opinion they should cut it down to 90 minutes, have the celeb onstage from the beginning and not let them bring on notes they've prepared earlier for the 'improvised' bits.

Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood - I think standing up for 3 hours (with an aborted fire evacuation included for good measure (apparently due to the smoke machine!)) made me grumpy!!