![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Cluedo_Title_1920x1080.jpg)
Show: Cluedo
Society: New Victoria Theatre (professional productions)
Venue: New Victoria Theatre. The Ambassadors, The Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey GU21 6GQ
Credits: Written by Sandy Rustin, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. With additional material for the UK production by Mark Bell. Produced by Kilimanjaro Theatricals, Gabriel Creative Partners, The Araca Group and Lively McCabe Entertainment
Type: Sardines
Performance Date: 21/02/2022
Cluedo
Sardines dropped into Woking’s New Victoria Theatre last night to see our latest cover star in action. Michelle Collins plays Miss Scarlett in Cluedo, which, in turn, is based on the classic board-game from Hasbro and 1985’s Paramount motion picture, Clue.
Moreover, the current tour has been directed by the same person who directed Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, and you can tell. The visual set pieces, the physical humour, the ensemble nature of the play… it’s all there. In fact Ms Collins shares her stage with a dozen other actors all of whom have an important role to play in the evening’s silliness.
An ‘silliness’ it is. It’s a real send-up of the entire whodunit, murder-mystery genre. For many, just the names: Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Reverend Green, Professor Plum, Miss Peacock and Mrs, White will immerse entire audiences into a nostalgic swirl. After all many of us have grown up with the game that was invented during the Second World War.
They all adopt the characteristics we all know and love. The gorgeous Miss Scarlett wears a tight dress and knows just how to turn an eye, Reverend Green is completely accident-prone and can’t stop apologising and Colonel Mustard is a real-life Hooray Henry – and certainly isn’t the brightest condiment in the cupboard. The funniest moment is arguably when Tom Babbage’s Reverend Green is caught under a falling chandelier – which takes an excruciatingly long time to land upon its victim. Hilarious!
But it is arguably the staff of Boddy Manor (Jean-Luke Worrell as Wadworth the butler and Laura Kirman as Yvette the maid – who isn’t really French) who threaten to steal the show. In fact the role of Wadsworth is a major part that Bell has really focused on bringing to the fore.
Daniel Casey (Prof. Plum) shares top billing with Michelle Collins but, as mentioned, the pair may be putting bums on seats but in reality are just two actors in a dozen-strong ensemble.
There’s little point talking about spoilers and plots. But I loved the way each room is opened by removing a section of wall (well done, David Farley). Needless to say the events centre around a dead body, lots of aforementioned rooms that we visit one by one, a candlestick, a rope, a dagger, a revolver, a lead pipe and a spanner (ouch!); they all make an appearance of course.
It wouldn’t be Cluedo otherwise! …and we wouldn’t hear somebody shout out ‘I think it was Professor Plum, in the Library, with the Lead-Piping!’ (apparently there are 323 other possibilities too).