A Murder is Announced (2024)

A Murder is Announced
[[File: |300px]] A Murder is Announced promotional image
Dates	14-16 March 2024
Venue	The Tower Theatre
Director	Caroline Dowling
Producer	Robert Emptage

The Folkestone-Hythe Operatic and Dramatic Society presented Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced on 14-16 March 2024 at The Tower Theatre, Folkestone.

Foreword

I have always been a fan of Agatha Christie, and remember watching Joan Hicks as Miss Marple on television as a young girl. I thought she was so wise, and understood the world in a way that I hoped that I might be able to one day. A Murder is Announced is the story that I first remember aspects of, so when the opportunity came to direct it, I jumped at the chance.

I have had a lot of fun with this play, there are some very old jokes in it that we no longer understand. One of those jokes is about two children called Pip and Emma. I researched the term and discovered that Pip and Emma was a reference to PM meaning afternoon. Another aspect of the play which is only alluded to but plays a bigger role in the books is a form of bartering that existed, as rationing was still a part of the 1950's experience where food was rationed. To get around this each member of the scheme had an item of food that they grew or had access to, in a locaiton within each other's houses. This was illegal, so a door was left open so items could be deposited unobserved.

It reminds me of a story from the Second World War, where some of my Belgium ancestors were involved in a similar undertaking. A piglet was hidden from the Germans and looked after by the participants, moving it around between them to stop the Germans getting a whiff of it. However word got out and the Germans did a house to house search for the pig, now fully grown. The occupants of the house where the pigs was located, came up with the brilliant idea of disguising the pig, now no longer alive, as an old woman stuck on the toilet, and the Germans aside from looking through the keyhole of the door did not inspect further. All participants partook from that enterprise undetected.

I hope you enjoy the play, and good luck with figuring out who did it.

Caroline Dowling, Director

Cast

• Sam Burgess as Miss Marple
• Stephanie Pittam as Letitia Blacklock
• Sheelagh Blackham as Dora Bunner
• Julie Morrow as Julia Simmons
• Emmie Rhodes as Phillipa Haymes
• Natalie Holness as Mitzi
• Kelly Yarrow as Mrs Swettenham
• Anthony Leyton-Thomas as Patrick Simmons
• Luke Jones as Edmund Swettenham
• Graham Burgess as Inspector Craddock
• Damian McGuire as Sargent Mellors and Rudi Schertz

Production Team

• Director: Caroline Dowling
• Assistant Director: Friesia Schuil
• Producer: Robert Emptage
• Set Design: Robert Emptage
• Props: Myra Collingridge
• Wardrobe: Kate Richmond and Sheelagh Blackham
• Stage Manager: Michael Pearce
• Deputy Stage Manager: Owen Wilshire
• Lighting Design: Dan Smith
• Lighting Operator: Cam Clark
• Sound Designer: Pete Brown
• Sound Operator: Mike Manton
• Prompt: Jeanette Lewis
• Design/Media: Malcolm Laye
• FHODS Marketing: Merewyn Forrest
• Photography: David Shackle

For The Tower Theatre

• Events/Marketing Manager: Reana Herchenhan
• Duty Manager: Gary Ingoldby-Spate
• Box Office and Admin: Michelle Hartley