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Prescription For Murder, Ferndown Drama Group, Barrington Theatre, Ferndown

NORMAN Robbins’ thriller centres round recently re-married Devon GP, Richard Forth (Steve Hawker) and his sickly wife, Barbara (Trish Binding). When a stranger arrives, claiming to be searching for a previous fiancée, a catalogue of events begins that is to leave more than one person dead – but who is actually telling the truth?

It is a credit to the performers and their director, Paul Marcus, that right from the beginning the suspense began to build and you could have heard a pin drop, so intent was the audience on watching the plot unfold. Congratulations too to the company for an absolutely first-class set that also added to the feeling of reality.

There were spot-on characterisations, with the performances of the two main characters well complemented by those of Dawn Hollington (Dorothy Livingstone), Kevin Dicker (Eric Dawson), Cathy Williamson (Julia Moore), Jenny Sibley (Mary Haigh) and Bob Johnson (Allan Haigh).

Red herrings abounded and there was a point when it seemed that any one of the characters might not have been all he or she seemed, so the denouement came as a complete surprise – except to Detective Kirkman, who had spotted a clue and was, astoundingly, proved right. 

A super evening.

Linda Kirkman 

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