Prim-Raf Theatre Murder Mystery Evening......

Maybe I should confess. When I was a small child, I discovered the arts in the following order:

• Ballet at age 3 (I must have seen it on TV, as that is the year we got our first one and I teased until they broke down and sent me for lessons!)
• Literature/Reading (shortly thereafter)
• Drawing as a serious pursuit at age 5 when my Kindergarten teacher tried to convince my parents that I should go to art school  (they declined, as I was already in ballet, and it was LONG before the over-scheduled child era)
• Theatre at age 9, when my grandmother took me to see West Side Story, the original original, on Broadway (yes, now you can calculate my age)
• Music at age 16, when my mother insisted I take piano lessons, which I loathed, as I had long since given up ballet, and she thought it would be useful to me as I was an avid theatre-goer by then, and acted in school plays.

So naturally, I became a journalist when I grew up, writing both arts and business, and spending a miserable year as editor of a large American agriculture magazine--odd enough since I was raised in New York City and on Long Island, where the only agriculture was to be seen in parks and consisted mainly of grass and ornamental trees.

From where to eternity???

I went to art school as an adult, and now do as much painting as writing. But old loves never really leave one, so I've gotten back into theatre, in a way. I accepted the task of doing promotion for Prim-Raf Theatre, Callington, Cornwall, UK. It's a job I did for a couple of years in the 1990s for a world-famous theatre in the US, Barter Theatre, which produced Gregory Peck, Larry Linville (Maj. Frank Burns on MASH), Frances Farmer (Titanic), Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal and more. At Barter, it was both a labour of love and of money in the bank; at  Prim-Raf, since it's a community theatre, is a labour of love.

Worthy love object

Prim-Raf is worth loving. Among the stars who have graced its stage are Edward Woodward and Michele Dotrice. It owns its building, highly unusual for a community theatre in any country. It has a store of costumes most professional theatres would drool over (and it hires them out to groups for productions and to individuals in need of fancy dress). And it gets high marks from the critics for its annual pantomime. The most recent one was an adaptation of The Emperor's New Clothes--as it happens, a favourite fairy tale of mine when I was little, along with The Twelve Dancing Princesses with whom I naturally identified. Prim-Raf's version of Clothes saw a King who wanted to become a top model in the modern world, so all the songs were current. But that didn't mean the production lacked exploding cakes and all that sort of thing, and the ultimate baddies and the charming goodies, and of course a perfect ending.

Currently in rehearsal for presentation May 2 and 3, 2014 is Blood Money, an interactivie murder mystery evening written by Prim-Raf member Paula Beswetherick. It's Cornish all the way to the ground, with the action taking place in a pasty factory, and the audience being treated to pasties and a pint as they unravel who dunnit. At the end of the evening, one audience member, drawn from those who correctly provide the killer's identity, will be rewarded for his or her efforts with a prize.

No mystery about it

If you live in Cornwall or West Devon, pass it on. It will be a fun evening, as the interactive mystery evenings always are. It isn't Shakespeare (too high-falutin') nor Eugene O'Neill (too problematical)....but it is Paula Beswetherick, who has a deft feel for comedy and is a dab hand at food, having been a professional chef for no less that Madame Tussaud's some years ago. (So, of course, food WOULD have to be a part of her art.....)

Take a peek at the poster above. Click it and enlarge it and pick up your tickets in Callington, or on the door (if available). Frankly, for ten quid per person, it's a heck of a deal if I do say so myself.

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Below, bonus video from a couple of years back.....