Murder in Noirville: A Murderously Boring Spoof

Spoofing a genre can be very funny. Much depends on the style of the original and the wit of the humorist.

In Murder in Noirville, playwright Peter Colley, best known for his highly successful whodunit I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, mocks film noir. Does it work? Not entirely. Film noir —a term first used in 1946 — referred to a style of melodramatic, black-and-white movie popular in the 1940s and 1950s that frequently focused on private detectives in seedy offices, often accompanied by a Girl Friday in love with him and a femme fatale competing for her boss’s affections.

Colley throws in a number of the basic ingredients and mixes in too many more to create a stylistic trifle, in both senses (a dessert containing a mixture of assorted ingredients and a work with little depth).

The newly appointed sheriff of a small town, Edenvale, is trying to overcome his despair at the murder of his wife and daughter. In the style of Humphrey Bogart, he is laconic, except in his voice-over narration, and drowns his sorrow in alcohol. The Mayor of Edenvale (a place very unlike its namesake Garden of Eden) is a shady type, obsessed with growing flowers. He and the equally shady local femme fatale, Evelyn, head opposing factions in the town, while the sheriff’s assistant, Alexandra, seeks justice for her father, one of the three previous sheriffs who was murdered while on the job. Also in the mix are Evelyn’s jealous and possibly dead husband, Marcus, and her uncle/lover (?)/gangster, Dante.

Too much to be credible? Probably, but the murder mystery/farce might have been rescued by a quality production. Unfortunately, such a label cannot be applied to Kanata Theatre’s version of Murder in Noirville.

While the set, lighting and some of the remaining technical aspects are effective in creating the appropriate ambience, the consistently slow pace and the generally weak acting drag the show to its less-than-believable conclusion.

Among the cast, Ian Glen is the most at ease in delivering a comic gangster type and Cathy Dowsett strides with intent into a one-note but acceptable version of a tough-broad-with-a-soft-centre type. Sadly, Erin Ryan’s attempt at a femme fatale is unconvincing and Peter Veale, on opening night anyway, appeared to have some trouble maintaining his characterization. The two other cast members — physically similar to create look-alike silhouettes — exist mainly to serve the script, though Harold Swaffield does manage some contrast between his tough tones and his voice when talking to his flowers (don’t ask).

Costumes by Helen Weeden are appropriate to the period, but her various directorial choices, with co-director Martin Weeden — for example, having the mayor who is about to suffer cardiac arrest constantly smoking a cigar and numerous repetitive movements among the cast — do not add to credibility or fluidity. The result is a grindingly slow show.

Murder in Noirville continues to April 5, 2014.

By Peter Colley

A Kanata Theatre production

Directors: Helen and Martin Weeden

Set: Romuald Frigon

Lighting: Roy Ballantine

Sound: Rob Fairbairn

Costumes: Helen Weeden

Cast:

Joe Adamante……………………………………Peter Veale

Mayor Wentworth……………………………….Harold Swaffield

Alexandra Gardner………………………………Cathy Dowsett

Evelyn McAllister……………………………….Erin Ryan

Marcus Bassano………………………………….Ronald R.D. Gardner

Dante Bassano……………………………………Ian Glen