PARWICH.ORG

Tickets are now on sale for a Christmas Whodunit being staged by New Perspectives in Parwich Memorial Hall on Sunday.

The East Midland’s touring theatre company of professional actors are putting on a performance of He Wore a Ted Hat, a comedy noir.

Tickets for the performance on Sunday 13 December at 7.30pm can be bought from Janet Gosling at the Sycamore pub in Parwich, priced £10. Tickets can also be bought on line here www.newperspectives.co.uk.

The acclaimed theatre company tours the UK attracting a strong following for the high quality of its productions and, after Parwich, moves north to Durham, Cumbria and Northumberland. The Memorial Hall Committee have done well to attract them

Talking about the production, New Perspectives said it was surprised to learn of a new and controversial pilot scheme currently being tested in Peterborough, in which police urge the public to report crime via Skype. The scheme bears an uncanny resemblance to its latest piece of theatre, playing rural villages nationwide such as Parwich in the run up to Christmas.

Artistic director Jack McNamara took inspiration from a newspaper story reporting that volunteers in rural Northants were to help police tackle rural crime by patrolling the countryside on horseback.

Taking the germ of an idea, he swapped horseback for cycling to create the bike-riding poet-cum-detective for his central character.

Mr McNamara said:

The story fired my imagination as I began to conjure up what kind of ill-equipped person might end up policing rural communities. As a result, I conceived a character called Josh Rogan who was both a hopeful poet and a detective but rather useless at both.

During the play, Rogan interviews witnesses and talks to the police via skype. This was pure invention on my part, to make a comic point about a detective who really didn’t do much leg work. So I was surprised during rehearsals to learn about the Cambridgeshire force’s pilot actively encouraging victims of crime to contact the police via Skype.

It seems life really can imitate art. If our new comedy is anything to go by let’s hope there are no hapless poets out there who turn to amateur sleuthing.

Actor-comedian, Gerry Howell, takes the central role. He last appeared in the title role of New Perspectives critically acclaimed comedy The Boss Of It All in 2014. He is joined by Boss Of It All co-star, Kate Kordel, alongside writer and performer Mufaro Makubika.

New Perspectives is the region’s only Arts Council England National Portfolio funded touring theatre. Ballidon Quarry, part of the Tarmac group of companies, is financially supporting the Parwich performance.