The City adventurers headed to The Concorde Club, Southampton, for the premiere of “Murder at King Henry’s Court”. The evening promised to be a tribute to Henry VIII and his wives. Full of intrigue, revenge, merriment and murder it was inspired by TV’s Wolf Hall, and written and performed by Murdered For Money.
The Plot
Henry is married to Catherine of Aragon whom he detests. He is desperate to marry Anne Boleyn but the church will not give him permission to divorce. Secrets, lies, passions and betrayal lurk with the palace walls. The tension at court is electric – soon it will be deadly!
Review
The marquee of the The Concorde Club had been set up to resemble a Tudor banqueting hall with long tables decorated with candles, fruit and Tudor roses decorations. The throne was centre stage with a Tudor hall backdrop. At each place setting there was a sheet of paper introducing all the characters within the play……well all except the “detective” but seeing as this was a murder mystery event, we expected there to be an investigator of some sort turn up later in the evening.
The cast circulated the rooms wearing beautiful costumes and mingling with the guests as they arrived. There was a lot of bobbing up and down as the Royal characters approached and the audience threw themselves into being courtiers. This resulted in a few over turned chairs as we were not used to this.
As always, the cast played their parts well. Special mention should go to the Old Crone who seemed to revel in her part, dancing and telling fortunes.
Yes, the court of King Henry included a cast of well known characters from history. And that’s where the problems started as we all knew what really happened to them. All of them except the old crone, that is. So obviously, we deduced, she could be the only one in line to be murdered…..or could she?
Spoiler alert: Turns out we were wrong, because this was an alternative universe or parallel timeline scenario.
Full disclosure, we don’t like alternative universe or parallel timeline scenarios when they happen on Star Trek. Your usual characters but things happening differently. So it took a while to come to grips with this premise. All the usual historic characters, but not as the history books tell you their lives will evolve.
That was not the only change from the usual Murdered For Money format. This murder mystery did not include the usual puzzle sheet with additional clues. Instead we had an information sheet with a floor plan and historic information.
Also, there was an additional character that was mentioned in the play that did not feature in the production. A last minute addition to the cast had to be made during interrogation, following numerous audience questions.
When the murder happened, it was fairly easy to work out who the murderer was. However, we added a few extra details based on court behaviour…..and we were wrong.
Not one of their best productions, but then it was a premier. Hopefully amendments will be made before it is next performance.
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