Scaramouche Theatre Company 
Forest Arts Centre, New Milton
Victoria Liechti 
20 March 2026
The Game’s Afoot, written by Ken Ludwig, is a classic whodunit, which will have you guessing until the very end. With lots of twists and turns, the play has a plot which Agatha Christie would be proud of. Director Anne Ponting herself wrote in the programme of the challenges presented in the staging, with the script requiring an electronic revolving piece of furniture, and copious amounts of blood on the stage, but, she says, they’ve managed to stay faithful to the script without the gore and gismos and that is certainly the case in this delightful production at the New Forest Arts Centre.
Set in December 1936, and starting with a staging of a Sherlock play at The Empire in Leicester Square, we see Sherlock battling wits with Moriarty, aptly played by Chris March and Alan Ponting, before the former is shot and the action moves to his mansion in Beaulieu, Hampshire. Here the actor William Gillette (Chris March) invites the cast of the play to spend Christmas together. The set design and dressing is of the period and well-presented, but it might have been nice to see a bit more luxury, as all the guests comment on the sumptuous house, which demands of the audience’s imagination.
However, this is more than made up for by the wonderful costumes of the period, with varied colours and designs, and the posture and projection by all the actors means not for a moment did we doubt where we were. William’s mother Martha (played with great characterisation by Tess Kazim) is hosting the evening too, and the guests arrive as Aggie Wheeler (played charmingly by Sophie Hills) and Simon Bright (Daniel Lyons perfectly capturing the blustering character) as well as the couple Felix Geisel (played with complete confidence by Alan Ponting) and Madge Geisel (Andrea Cutler bringing great facial expressions conveying all her emotions) – the scene is set, the evening continues, until William presents a surprise guest, Daria Chase, the theatre critic and columnist who seems to know everyone’s secrets (Francesca Tucker bringing great comedic energy to the stage).
Even the announcement before the play commenced set the comedic tone of the evening, and the ensemble cast adeptly brought the play to life; the audience loved it and were laughing a lot. When one of the guests is murdered with a knife in the back, even the dying scene was so well done that the audience were crying with laughter! Enter the enigmatic Inspector Goring (played by Dawn Cresswell, bringing her own humour and dry wit to the piece) who is ‘assisted’ by William (in his Sherlock persona) to solve the case – and with so many actors at the mansion, there are plenty of twists and turns to overcome before they can solve the murder(s).
There were a few nerves on the first night, but this did not distract from the excellent staging and acting on stage which gave us a delightful evening at the theatre. The director herself worked very hard, as both Front of House and backstage, though an iron in the dressing room might have been an idea for a couple of Sherlock’s costumes – but these are only little niggles, as it really was a great evening, and I’d highly recommend you grab a ticket if you can. We need more of such wonderful community theatre – murder mystery with great wit and comedy, certainly a well-chosen play and a fabulous cast.
