Opening with a dead person on the floor of the Festival Theatre, Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts gives our detective another crime to solve. This whodunnit returns in theatrical form to our stages with a cosy warmth. This is definitely a crime drama in the past tense, given its classical format and ghost-hunting agenda. More risks need to be made, and not more murders.
All this sounds a little bit too familiar — and this is the production’s biggest credit, and also its biggest drawback. Written by acclaimed Scottish writer, Alma Cullen, the script is witty and charming, clearly posed to suit the play’s origins as a TV drama and cater for the older audience members who hold the franchise dear. The script is well-sculpted to make the audience question who is the victim, and to include a cast of flavoursome characters. The links to Hamlet are obviously made, but well-timed — turning Hamlet inside out, and placing a play within a play. The anachronism Hamlet already holds manages to perfectly contain this runaway crime drama style. There are clever modern links to homosexuality and female victimisation, which gives the drama a present-day sense of belonging overall.
Comedic moments seem too polite, and more could be done to update the serious, dry moments which make the script a little on the stodgy side. The comedy does land, at points — mild cackles ripple across the audience as Morse works his magic on his audience with Rick Astley jokes or beautifully vulnerable remarks. This comedy dilutes a plot which is quite muddled, but such a storyline does add to the characteristic charm of this kind of drama — only a small percentage of the audience can unpack the evidence and find out who the criminal is.
Tom Chambers as Inspector Morse is fundamentally what props this play up. Despite the fact that he is a trifle serious at points, he manipulates the stage with ease as an actor of high acclaim, and a step above the rest. He moves between naturalism and investigation with a wonderful ease, which makes him both lovable and deeply concerning at the same time. Teresa Banham as Ellen does not underperform. Banham can compete and put Chambers’ work at threat, and creates the perfect caring yet also mysterious character with an iron grip.
Due to its TV melodrama style, other characters’ performances lack the same emotional integrity and thus seem flimsy. Such a style works better on screen, but when under such intense scrutiny of an Inspector Morse fanbase, this style of overt naturalism does not land and dissolves some of the screen magic. Multi-layered, more troubled responses are needed from actors. Despite some well thought out transitional movements, some scenes move around too frequently and are too complex in their set design. However, director Anthony Banks does well to create high stakes, using enticing flashbacks to the past as Morse hunts his ghosts in the past and present.
This is a TV Crime drama for the stage, bubbling with warm energy and talent, and gripping throughout — though at points it is a little on the safe side.
Photo by Johan Persson, courtesy of Capital Theatres.