Midnight Murder at Arts Theatre Cronulla

The new production at Arts Theatre Cronulla is Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall, written by Mark Kilmurry and Jamie Oxenbould. This is a new Australian play, originally commissioned for Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre in 2023. Director Susan Turner notes in the program that she saw this play when it premiered and immediately felt it was one that ATC audiences would love. She is not wrong! Preview audiences have been thoroughly entertained, chuckling and guffawing in equal measure.

We are shown behind the scenes at the world of amateur theatre, where luck, determination and unbridled confidence rule the day. It’s the opening night of a new murder mystery, presented by amateur theatre company Middling Cove Players, and many of the cast have come down with the dreaded lurgy. As “the show must go on”, the three remaining actors and anyone else that they can co-opt have to pitch in to do the show. The pressure is also on as an unidentified member of the local council will be in the audience to essentially decide the fate of the company. Juggling nerves, props, and absurd miscasting, will they manage to pull it off? Or will everything go horribly, terribly and awfully wrong?

What follows is organised chaos with our troupe of players bravely soldiering on through all the pitfalls of theatre including ill-fitting costumes, bad wigs, forgotten lines, bad acting, missing sound effects – and they somehow manage to make it to the end of the show. 

Variously described as eye-wateringly funny, whimsically creative, and enabling a joyous abandonment that proves infectious, Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall is a hilarious take on bad timing, incompetence and sweet optimism, as we experience the breadth of “What could go wrong?” As the director instructs in the program: buckle up and enjoy the ride!

The production opens on Friday 9 May, 2025 and runs till Saturday 14 June, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with four Sunday matinees at 2pm.

Tickets are $33/$30 and can be booked online via the theatre’s website: 

https://www.artstheatrecronulla.com.au/

Cast

BARNEY               Brendan Jones

PHILLIPA              Arianne “Flossie” Hough

SHANE                 Michael Gooley

KAREN                 Angela Gibson

RICHARD             Samuel Owen

Photos: Port Hacking Camera Club - Dan Binger, Graham West, Maria Franklin and Mark Phillips.