Theatre Review: Once Upon a Crime at Nottingham New Theatre

On a cold Thursday night, some friends and I gathered at The Portland Building’s Studio to watch the opening performance of Nottingham New Theatre’s Once Upon A Crime, co-written by Amy Child and Ana Balanici. It was a near full house, full of my university peers and non-students alike, which set my expectations high for this production- compounded by the warm introduction that we as an audience received, with a fairytale themed bar, Goldilocks-inspired cocktails, and enthusiastic staff. From my peering into the room before the play began, I could see the set (arranged to look like a house) that was bathed in bright light, as cosy as any scene in an IKEA catalogue.

Soon we were introduced to the crime scene in motion- a teenage Goldilocks died after consuming porridge in Mummy and Daddy Bear’s house, and half the town were called in to give their version of events to gruff, impassioned Yorkshireman Detective Inspector Wright (played by Ollie Ennis) In typical mystery-play fashion, he interrogated each one of the suspects in front of us, providing means, motive and method more through his own interpretation of the events at hand than the evidence presented; this was aided by the banter of the suspects and the wonderful tech department, who accompanied Inspector Wright’s brash assertions with red light, and the suspects’ attempts to defend themselves with green (not to mention multicoloured once Rumple entered the folly, but we’ll talk about that in a minute) The six suspects, Mummy Bear (Gracie Yelland), Daddy Bear (Charlotte Reay), Rumple (Alessia Lowcock), Piper (Bethan Leeke), Red (Grace Court-Jones), and the eponymous Big Bad Wolf (Darcy Kelly), were fleshed out as characters and introduced (with funny asides and references to other fairytales) within the first half, with the second leaving us time to think about the secrets and motives of each of the suspects, and the machinations and relationships between them- with the conclusion of the true murderer being revealed.

One thing that I particularly admired about this production was the worldbuilding and context of the story- these little details not only entertained in the moment and assisted in immersing us as the audience within the world, but foreshadowed the murderer’s motive, backstory and key details about the crime. There was a nice balance between current real-life pop-culture and pop-culture of the universe, and the way that they linked to each other was oftentimes humorous (Impact Magazine exists in this world, apparently!) The personal attributes of each character impacting their presentation as suspects, played up to 100, also made the story enjoyable- some leaning heavily on stereotypes from the original fairy stories (Rumple as a wacky childminder, whose murder hypothesis was complete with flashing rainbow lights, Mummy and Daddy Bear having a personal feud with Goldilocks) but some adding original attributes (Red Riding Hood as an irritable teenager that went to school with Goldilocks) I found that the interesting relationship dynamics built between characters were a definite strength.

I noted that some scenes dragged on somewhat- whether in terms of dialogue or movement, and that some plot points were accompanied by unneeded or extraneous dialogue, but these were few and far between and offset with moments of comedy and sweetness.

In conclusion, Once Upon a Crime was a cosy, oftentimes hilarious murder mystery with a satisfying end, plot twists a-plenty and compelling characters- aided by the excellent lighting and set design. To create a fairytale-themed piece that isn’t derivative can be difficult, but the writers pulled it off with flair, turning the Portland Building Studio into a place of whimsy.

Once Upon a Crime played at the Nottingham New Theatre from Thursday 23 November until Sunday 26 November