"Helen Boobis took the brave step of putting on a wholly new play, as DDS' Lent main-show. Death by Mirror was written by Jonn Elledge, a Tit Hall student and has never been performed before. The play was enjoyable for all, but especially those who played lots of cluedo when younger. Applause must go to Helen for putting on a brand new show in her first attempt at directing."
Death By Mirror is a new play by Jonn Elledge that deals with the pressures of fame and the quest for happiness. It attempts to address many other issues - physical abuse, alcoholism and love being just a few. In-depth psychological profiles of each person are presented as the audience is forced to understand why they are not perfect and should be sympathised with. This felt slightly contrived in places as everyone's actions were justified in terms of them being treated badly in the past and the play felt a little too long. However, this is an entertaining production with inspired direction and strong performances from the cast, in particular Andrea Hunt (who evoked memories of Joy from Drop the Dead Donkey).
Murder mystery with a twist? Student writer Jonn Elledge's latest play satirises this clichéd Hollywood genre in semi-Stoppardian manner with varying degrees of success. Its main weakness is not knowing how seriously to take itself at points: the welding together of comic and potentially more sombre elements, such as alcohol-driven physical abuse and severe loneliness, is not a happy one. The result is that many characters appear not so much farcical as unbelievable. There are, however, many positive elements to this production. The cast excels; they all appear completely committed to their roles. Particularly notable performances come from Andrea Hunt, Marcus Ramshaw, and Nick Long; the latter is especially charismatic in his role as the critic-cum-sleuth Marcus Watson. As might be expected, the pacing accelerates considerably in the latter half of the play; one hopes that as the run progresses, this smoothness will also become apparent during earlier sections.
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