Searching for Doctor Branovic

What an interesting, silly and humorous plot!

Emma Tyler is mourning the sudden death of her husband, Joe, and is arranging his funeral.  But is that is what will happen?  Husband Joe escapes from the morgue, which is not a bad trick for a dead body. A Doctor Branovic appears and it gets more intriguing from there. Enter Detective Inspector Monroe to solve the mystery, which begins to send the grumpy beleaguered detective round the bend. The audience was feeling the same stress following this over the top story line, quite ideal for such a comedy.

Director Trevor Howden demonstrates his skill fully with a tight fluent production and the choice of a well balanced cast. Timing is so important in comedy and he has achieved it consistently in this production. Of the cast of five, three roles stood out – Emma and Joe Tyler and Inspector Monroe.  Melanie Pryde, as Emma, was the dominant character and she carried the action extremely well. A very good performance indeed. Husband Joe was played by Nathan Symonds with strength, yet needed more variation in his delivery and actions at times. John Sales was the bumbling but stoic detective trying to solve the many questions raised.  This was good casting, a contrast to the others central to the action and fully in character.  Susan Harding–Smith and Kris Kamusinski completed the very strong cast.\

In act 1, the play dragged a little, not from the production but the writing. A few cuts would help enormously. A couple of issues during set changes didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. A good production, a strong cast, plenty of humour and an intriguing story line – what more could the audience anticipate.  Congratulations to Mousetrap Theatre for this great night of entertainment. Put it on your must see list.

William Davies