Mark Kilmurry, Daniel Mitchell and Georgie Parker. Photo: Prudence Upton.
Murder on the Wireless is a huge serve of nostalgia, harking back to the days when entertainment came via the radio and aural plays were the thing. A few lucky people had black and white TV – certainly not colour – and as for the internet and streaming – dream on!
Director Mark Kilmurry starts off this 90-minute work with an adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Solitary Cyclist. Georgie Parker is the beleaguered cyclist, Miss Violet Smith, who fears skulduggery; Daniel Mitchell is Watson and Kilmurry is Holmes. These three Australian stalwarts are aided and abetted by Katie Fitchett as the Foley Editor. Fitchett provides the sound effects, so crucial for radio plays.
Everything looks very authentic. Simon Greer’s set, with its Persian carpet and muted browns and russets, is totally believable and Genevieve Graham’s period-perfect costume design place us firmly in 1959. Kilmurry welcomes the audience, which is given the rundown on the ‘live to air’ performances they are about to witness.
Parker, Kilmurry and Mitchell embody the type of actors that would have had their heyday in this 1950s genre. It’s all very well done, but when the audience can see the Foley rather than just hear the effects, Fitchett pretty much steals the show. Not only does she show us the door-slamming contraption, the old-fashioned egg-beater that can replicate the sound of bicycle wheels turning, the crumpling plastic that suggests a breeze… she is an entertainment in herself. Which may not be what Kilmurry intended. Given the somewhat static nature of the three delivering the radio play, it is hard not to concentrate on Fitchett, who is by turns frantically busy, and apparently bored enough to have a cigarette.
Katie Fitchett as the Foley Editor. Photo: Prudence Upton
Credit for the sound design in this production goes to Daryl Wallis.
I looked up Foley, because I didn’t know how the term originated. I am wiser now (thanks, Wikipedia): “Foley (named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley) is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. Without the crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.” I also learned that the term may be anachronistic for a 1950s audience. Just saying.
For an older generation, who would have heard (and perhaps still are enjoying) radio plays such as these, Murder on the Wireless is all good clean fun For a younger generation, who have never given pre-streaming entertainment, pre-SFX, pre CGI, a thought, it may well be an eye-opener.
So far so good, but Murder on the Wireless is just too much of the same good old thing. The Solitary Cyclist is a murder mystery, but it will not have you gripping the edge of your seat. The second play, The Dead(ly) Wives Club, is penned by Kilmurry. It fits this radio genre but its enactment does not add much to what we have already seen. I was waiting for something more. Some personal rivalry, or antagonism between the three actors, perhaps. Anything, really.
A very gentle night at the theatre, with some excellent funny moments.
Until 13 July
