Cluedunnit? - Cluedo 2 review

I haven't seen anyone else use that pun before. Then again, I've been struggling with the internet recently, so it might be the most common word out there for all I know.

DISCLAIMER: I WROTE A LOT OF THIS ON A BUS SO I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY TYPOS 

As you may have gathered, I have seen the play Cluedo 2. In order to talk about Cluedo 1 though, we first need to talk about Clue.

Clue was a movie released in 1985, loosely based on the American board game Clue, which was itself based on the English board game Cluedo. Cluedo is a portmanteau (ooh, big word) of the word clue, referring to the murder mystery element, and Ludo, referring to the board game element.

You probably already know the basic concept of the game, but just in case you don't, here it is:

Dr Black has just been murdered. Players play as one of the six murder suspects, Miss Scarlett; Colonel Mustard; Mrs White; Reverend Green; Mrs Peacock and Professor Plum. Players will move around Tudor Mansion (house name changes depending on version), suggesting a murderer, murder weapon and location. The winner is the player who guesses all three correctly.

It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the basic concept.

"But wait", I hear my American brethren saying! "I don't recognize some of those names!" No, and that's because the American version makes two major changes to the characters: Dr Black is renamed Mr Boddy, 'because he's a body', and Reverend Green becomes Mr Green because of course a clergyman couldn't be accused of murder(!)

The movie Clue added the characters of Wadsworth the butler and Yvette the housemaid, but other than that, it uses the American characters. In that movie, there are six separate murders, including two separate murders of one person! I've spoken about this before.

The first Cluedo play was adapted from the movie, with one major difference. The movie infamously has three endings, which were broadcast in different cinemas when it was released, so you might get a different ending depending on where you saw it. Anywhere you watch it now will include all three endings though, so you can choose whodunnit yourself.

The three endings are:

• Zdgvzruwk is secretly Erggb and they committed all the murders.
• Vfduohww committed all the murders.
• Each of the six main characters committed one of the murders.

(The answers are encoded to remove spoilers - to find them you'll need to ask Caesar three times)

Although the 2022 play Cluedo is based on the movie, it only had one ending; Vfduohww dunnit. But if Black/Boddy dies in the first play, how can you make a sequel? The answer is simple: You don't.

Cluedo 2 exists independently of its predecessor(s). The main victim is now Rick Black (Liam Horrigan), a rock star who seems to be based on Russell Brand, which is weird as the show is set in 1968, a full seven years before Brand was even born. Are there really no real '60s musicians worth parodying? That being said, it really works, even though Black is only properly in one scene.

Before the show starts, we were greeted by 60's music (mostly Beatles) and the below set:

Photo Credit: Alastair Muir and Dave Hogan

The set is designed to look like the original board. I've checked, and only one of the rooms isn't where it's supposed to be.

Vsy olhesyr dbf nirvstguxrfa lli vkcajig opo nlh kqcx Olhesyr vvqffh es vsy swvgc qeb ir.

Like Gravity Falls, the code has got more complicated for the sequel (the keyword is cluedo).

We thought that once the play began, the house would be raised (or lowered), showing the full map, but it remained in place throughout. Every time the characters entered a room, a light would appear indicating which room they were in on the map. The Conservatory and Ballroom (the two rooms not shown on the map) are mentioned, but no proper scenes take place there.

The show begins, as all murder mysteries should, with a scream. By whom though? As it turns out, Miss Scarlett (Ellie Leach We went to one of only two venues she didn't appear in, so I can't tell which understudy it was. Best guess is Kara Alberts-Turner).

But she wasn't discovering the body; he wasn't dead yet. So why was she screaming?

(Awkward pause as I try to remember myself)

Not a clue(do). I'll instead list the characters in the hope that'll trigger my memory.

The Victim 

Rick Black (Liam Horrigan) - a washed up rock star on the brink of making a comeback with his new album 

The suspects:

Miss Annabel Scarlett (Kara Alberts-Turner. Maybe) - Black has just hired her to do some interior design for Graveney Manor, but it turns out she has some history with the house herself...

'Colonel' Eugene Mustard (Jason Durr) - Black's crooked manager - he will make a lot of money from the new album, but can make even more by spreading the news of Black's death, especially if he has the master tapes from the new album...

Mrs White (Dawn Buckland) - Graveney Manor's housekeeper - she needs to stop Black digging up some skeletons she'd like to stay buried...

'Reverend' Hal Green (Gabriel Paul) - Black's former writing partner, who Black forced to go to war in Vietnam...

Mrs Emerald Peacock (Hannah Boyce) - Black's wife, who stand to make a lot of money as hi next of kin...

'Professor' Alex Plum (Edward Howells) - The unintelligent (hence the ironic title) manager (?) of Black. He is having an affair he would like to keep secret...

That hasn't jogged my memory at all. It does establish motives for all the characters though, most of which are clarified in an early scene.

Black says he has gathered his friends (minus Green, who Black doesn't know is coming and hasn't arrived yet) to celebrate the release of his new album. He then goes to the Study alone to finish the recordings.

We are then treated to the first of many scene changes. 60s style music plays and the lights on the house at the back of the set flash on and off while the actors move scenery, finishing with Scarlett moving in riding a bookcase. Lights on the map show: Library

It's in this scene that we learn the motives of Scarlett, Mustard, Peacock and Plum. Green isn't here yet and we don't learn White's motive until after the crime is solved.

We then move to the Hall, where a visitor has arrived. It's Wadsworth the butler (Jack Bennett). Except he isn't; he's an actor due to be playing a butler in a gin commercial to be filmed the following day. This is a running joke through the entire play, with everyone constantly treating him like a butler, eventually culminating in the line:

"For the 37th time, and yes I have been counting, I am not a butler, I am just an actor playing a butler!"

I don't know if it was the 37th time, but I hope it was. Otherwise it would be strange to leave it in the script.

There's a knock at the door. Everyone looks to Wadsworth, who eventually accepts his fate and goes to answer the door. It's Hal Green (not Al Green; that's a different musician).

Now all the characters are hungry, so they go to the Study to collect Black for dinner. To say he doesn't look well is a bit of an understatement:

He has been stabbed with a dagger, shot with a revolver, strangled with a rope and hit on the head with a blunt object, possibly a candlestick, a lead pipe or a spanner ("Wrench!")

It's at this point that I should mention that although the play is set in England and therefore most of the characters are English, Mustard and Green are both American and therefore confused by various Britishisms ("Now who on earth are Arthur Lager and Rosie Lee?!")

From this point on I'll stop describing the plot beat for beat and just outline a few highlights:

1. At one moment in the first scene, Mrs White goes off stage left (for those not familiar with theatre terms, that's the right from audience POV) and instantly enters stage right (left from audience POV). 

I looks very impressive, but I probably should have seen it coming. In a surreal unrealistic play like this, if someone is facing away from the audience for a long period of time, even if they're still talking, they're probably not actually there. This even applies if they're centre stage.

2. On several occasions, the other characters need to pretend that Black is still alive, so they have to Weekend at Bernie's him.

Movie Glossary 

To Weekend at Bernie's someone (v.) - to pretend a dead person is still alive, usually by utilizing makeup, sunglasses and ventriloquism/puppetry. Orig. Weekend at Bernie's, 1989

This is done with varying levels of effectiveness, but for some reason no characters are unconvinced by the illusion.

3. Later, the character Phillip (?) Grey  (Liam Horrigan again) is introduced. He is the director of the gin advert, and this leads to the first example of Weekend at Bernie'sing Black.

It turns out he has previous history with Unuvosve, giving them a motive to kill Grey. Coincidentally, in the next scene Grey is stabbed by someone disguised as a bear. The other characters discover the second body, hear the doorbell ringing, assume the position and that's the end of the first half.

4. Speaking of disguising oneself as a bear, this is a stuffed bear located in the Hall, but in some of the scene changes, the bear comes past holding a picture frame, to indicate a corridor.

5. Most reviews seem to be comparing Cluedo 2 to The Play That Goes Wrong, mainly because both were directed by Mark Bell. Personally I don't see the comparison, although I do think it's very similar to The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Dear Mischief, I appreciate that it's funny to have ridiculously long titles for your shows, really I do, but it's a massive pain when you have to type multiple ones in a row).

The similarity is especially obvious in the scene changes, with music and characters moving across the stage carrying scenery, although the accompanying music is not perfect live.

6. This one happens right at the end, but I need to write it now before I forget a good joke I've come up with.

There's a murder that takes place prior to the play, in which xxxxx used the lead piping as a murder weapon in a very creative way, by slowly filing it down and poisoning someone.

On the plus side, at least his complexion would bring all ze boys in.

At best a half decent joke, but also surprisingly not the deepest cut joke I've ever made