Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts at Richmond Theatre

Again this was a case of it is on at Richmond Theatre so I ought to go and see it. 

I have fond memories of the tv series too though my recollection of it is dimmed by the many intervening years.

For some reason, this was a more expensive show than usual for Richmond Theatre and so I headed up to the top level where seat Upper Circle A 12  was a mere £17.5.

It was dead centre too. The only downside is that it takes an awful lot of stairs to get up there and then some more very steep ones to get down to the front row. I am starting to notice these things!

In House of Ghosts, Morse has to solve a case of unexplained death during a performance of Hamlet and the ghosts were from his university days when he had been involved in another production of the play which involved some of the people who were also involved in the latest production.

Morse, and Lewis, tried to solve the puzzle by interviewing lots of people in lots of places, as well as going to the pub together, so the scenes changed swiftly. This was done smoothly and cleverly by moving just enough props to create each place. This is common theatre practice but it is not often done as well as it was here.

At the centre of everything were Morse (Tom Chambers), Lewis (Tachia Newall) and prime suspect and director of both Hamlets (James Gladdon) and they were a very strong core. Each character was vivid, believable and brought something different to the play.

I vaguely recall seeing this episode on TV and while that might have helped with one of the twists it did nothing to help to solve the main mystery and the ending came as a good surprise.

Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts did everything that I expect from a show at Richmond Theatre, it was a professional production that entertained easily without expecting too much from the audience.