What would you do if a person went missing in your town…and you suspected that the murderer was living in your house?
Such is the dilemma facing the characters in “Night Must Fall”, the classic 1935 psychological thriller by Emlyn Williams – now showing at The Oakwood (courtesy of Woodley Theatre).
Wheelchair-bound Mrs Bramson (Jane Harris) lives in a remote part of the Essex countryside. The domineering, manipulative invalid hosts quiet niece Olivia (Melanie Sherwood), Olivia’s hopeful suitor Hubert (Neil Oxley), and her staff members – maid Dora (Assunta Palladino) and cook Mrs Terrence (Sarah O’Donnel).
At first, the banter and repartee between staff and matriarch suggests that this will be a frothy Oscar Wilde-esque drawing room play – until news arrives of a local woman’s disappearance.
And that’s not the only new arrival – after revealing that she’s fallen pregnant, Dora’s bank holiday fling Dan (Dean Stephenson) turns up to face a grilling from Mrs Bramson. He seems to be a hardworking, put-upon yet charming bell boy – but could he be linked to the disappearance?
The question looms large in Olivia’s mind when Dan instills himself in the household as a makeshift attendant to the smitten Mrs Bramson…
It’s a brilliant setup for thriller; unlike an Agatha Christie play (where the identity of the murderer is a secret until the end), here the blame seems (though is perhaps not entirely) clear from the start. The play therefore becomes less a question of “whodunnit?” and more one of “whydunnit?”, coupled with a creeping dose of “…and how long until they do it again?”
This is brought to the fore by the overbearing unpleasantness of Mrs Bramson – a character so deliciously vile that not only can you barely wait for someone to shove her wheelchair off the edge of the stage, you marvel at how her staff have restrained the urge to do so this long.
Harris is absolutely excellent in the role – her physicality is constrained from being bound to the wheelchair, but (through expert use of her vocal range, physical contortions and facial expressions) she nevertheless soars. This is a performance to rival some of the legendary portrayals of Wilde’s grande dames.
In contrast, Stephenson’s Dan is a complex, multifaceted diamond – manipulative, skilled at turning himself into whatever the person he’s talking to wants him to be in order to win their favour. From the moment he enters the play, you can believe he’s a killer – as the rest of the characters clearly do. Portraying convincingly dangerous people is no mean feat for an actor, but Stephenson is perfect.
The trick – not just in his performance, but in the play itself – is that we’re encouraged to question what we see. Sure, Dan seems manipulative – but when we hear about his put-upon life as a bell boy, do we not sympathise with him? Do we, too, not secretly yearn to eat Mrs Bramson’s chocolates when she’s not looking and to bring the old girl down a peg or two when she screams abuse at her staff?
Does that make us sympathetic, decent people – or is Dan simply manipulating us into feeling sorry for him?
It’s a unique selling point for a play – unlike others that invite you to be a detective, this one puts you in the shoes of the people around a possible killer, and invites you to ask yourself what you would do in their position. Doubtless we’ve all said “surely they knew, surely they could’ve done something” when we read about a killer who was well-liked by their friends and family; well, here’s a chance to find out.
With excellent acting all round, effective and atmospheric set- and technical design from the crew (moments of silence and low lighting proving to be particularly sinister) and assured direction from Mikhail Franklin, this is a highly recommended night out – and a very fitting one now that the dark, cold evenings are drawing in…
“Night Must Fall” runs from the 26th – 30th September at The Oakwood, Woodley. Tickets are available from https://www.woodleytheatre.org.
