Peter Rae is the writer and a performer in the world premiere of This Is Not A Murder Mystery, a razor-sharp comedy-thriller from Canonbie Productions. Known for their award-nominated hits, the company returns to the Drayton Arms Theatre with another genre-bending theatrical treat.
Set in a chaotic dressing room on the opening night of a fictional murder mystery, the play promises fast-paced dialogue, unexpected twists, and a cast of unforgettable characters.
This Is Not A Murder Mystery runs from 27th May to 7th June 2025 at the Drayton Arms Theatre, with press night on Wednesday 28th May. Tickets are available at www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk.
You’re bringing This ls Not A Murder Mystery to Drayton Arms Theatre-what can you tell us about the show?
It’s a fast and frenetically fabulous farce set somewhere within the Murder Mystery genre of which it may be an example, or not…
And it’s a celebration of the absolute wonder, the madness, the beauty, the creativity, the power, the inspiration, the strength and the sheer brilliance of older women. In this age where hyper-awareness of representation is everywhere, women above 50 would still seem to be an overlooked demographic.
The play is set in a theatre dressing room on the opening night of a brand-new murder mystery. What drew you to this unique setting and premise?
After two back-to-back Murder-Mystery farces set in an Agatha Christie-style country manor and on a Colonial Borneo-like island respectively, I decided to rest Lord Sebastian Hardcastle & Lady Susan Bloom as the Agatha Christie-era crime-fighting protagonists and do something contemporary.
So, my brief to myself for this, and as ever the material was inspired and developed with Helen, was ‘three women over fifty in a dressing room’. This setting allows for an intimate look at how people behave in their natural environment, unobserved and uncensored.
I wanted to create a piece that shows women being women, unapologetically, and in all their truth and we considered a few different settings but it quickly became apparent that a possible Murder happening in a theatre just was the ideal framing device.
Canonbie Productions has had great success with previous comedies-how does This Is Not A Murder Mystery build on or differ from those earlier works?
We have been delighted with the response to our previous shows and we find comedy such an exciting genre to work in. Our plays are very satirical. We are continually working on creating a theatrical landscape that is both truthful and recognisable but at the same time heightened, exaggerated and borderline ludicrous. Because we make comedy, we need to make sure the audience finds the world we are presenting both hilarious (ideally) and utterly believable – as a fundamental tenet of everything we do. We are highly irreverent in our approach but we never allow anything to be glib, not in the script, not in rehearsal and not in performance. The audience must believe in this exaggerated world fully and straight away.
Because the wonderful thing is once you have achieved that they will go with you anywhere. They realise that in this world and with these characters, anything is possible and they embrace it. This then allows us to tackle sensitive and controversial subject matter and have good old pop at the establishment but in a way that is non-didactic and hopefully hugely entertaining.
Our work is an ongoing process. We learn what works and what doesn’t, what hits and what misses and continue to develop our style of storytelling. So each new play is an evolution of the previous.
In a narrative way the difference this time is that we are jumping in time to the present day. And yet the characters should still be recognisable as existing in the same universe as Lord Sebastian and Lady Susan.
The cast features a dynamic mix of characters, including indomitable women over 50 and a “handsome young ingénue.” How do these relationships drive the story and its comedy- thriller elements?
Watching this phenomenally-talented cast bring these characters to life has been an exhilarating process.
The tongue-in-cheek ‘reversal’ of the traditional ‘male-heavy’ and ‘token-female’ character setup came first, and then the murder-mystery setting put these three powerhouse women in their own context and the relationships between them and the – in-every-sense – supporting male characters allows the story takes on its own momentum be driven by these interactions.
I had wanted to create a light homage to Yasmina Reza’s Art, but with the three central characters being women. The beauty of Art is that it is not actually about the painting at all but rather an exploration of male intimacy, friendship, trust, connection and support, and once you know that the painting is irrelevant it is revealed simply as the framing device. The same here with the comedy-thriller elements – they’re how the story is delivered, but it’s the characters and the relationships between them who drive the story by being truthful representations in this exaggerated world.
I have three women over 50 behaving backstage in the way women do. Together. Helen obviously guided me very closely but she feels it is a true depiction of how women are – older women, what they talk about, how they communicate, what they do.
As both a writer and performer, how do you balance the demands creating and embodying such vibrant, fast-paced material?
The writing obviously comes first so by the time we’re in rehearsal I’m only refining. In addition, in this show I’m not really playing a lead so I can keep a good eye on the script as we go. The real MVP is (my wife & director) Helen Bang. She is both playing the huge central role of Elizabeth Treasure AND directing the entire thing so her job is massive. Thankfully she is very well supported by our brilliant assistant director, Oettie Devriese.
On a personal note, out of the blue last year Helen was diagnosed with malignant melanoma and had her right eye removed. This has been a rather traumatic experience and one she has faced with incredible dignity and strength. This is her first stage performance since that all occurred and so she has faced additional challenges in terms of confidence and all that this new reality brings and quite frankly I’m in awe at how she has dealt with it all.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see This Is Not A Murder Mystery?
Do thus.
