As midnight strikes, a storm rages over the wilds of Bodmin Moor. The surviving descendants of the long-deceased Cyrus West have gathered in his remote mansion to discover which of them is the chosen heir to his fortune.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, astonishingly
00:07it's flashed by, we are reaching the very last play in the Chichester Festival Theatre
00:11summer season, which is The Cat and the Canary, and welcoming you back to the Festival Theatre
00:15after plenty of successes here, Nick Haverson. Now, Nick, you are promising us something
00:20hilarious, aren't you? I am. I would defy anybody to go into that
00:26theatre and not laugh. I mean, it's a murder mystery, so there's an element of you thinking,
00:31oh, hang on, should I be trying to figure out who is the perpetrator of a murder, possibly,
00:37if a murder happens? But the way that you would be taken through the story, yeah, I
00:44would defy you not to have a little giggle or a big guffaw.
00:48Is there an element of whodunit? We're going to be trying to work things out.
00:52There is, yeah, very much an element of a whodunit. And you're never quite sure, in true
00:57sort of Agatha Christie style, if we use her as reference, you're not quite sure who it may
01:02have been. It's all done in relative mystery. And although there's not a detective there to
01:07try and sort it out, the detective is the audience. You have to try and come to your
01:12own conclusion. You might be slightly surprised. Do we stand a chance at this?
01:17I think you stand a chance in figuring out who it could be. But it could be one of six
01:25and possibly more. So it's a tricky one. It's a tricky one. But yeah, it will keep you guessing.
01:31And you're saying there have been a succession of versions of this. It's been adapted and adapted
01:36again. But with each successive version, it's become funnier. So that's heading in the right
01:40direction. I think so. And I think that's the right way to go. I mean,
01:46we talk about the sort of genre of the murder mystery. And yeah, you can play it very seriously.
01:52But in your serious playing of that, it becomes funny. Because we've seen so many detective
01:58stories, this, you know, the Poirot's, the Agatha Christie's, we play Cluedo at home.
02:02You know, all of those elements, I think, are brought in to this play. And it becomes like a
02:09game. And, you know, for moments that you may be horrified, there are other moments that are
02:14deeply hilarious. And we play those to the hilt. And, you know, we have the sort of
02:21true conviction to do that. It becomes funnier, the more serious you become,
02:25the, you know, the stakes become higher. And the play becomes funnier.
02:29It sounds a fabulous way to take us into the winter season. Nick, lovely to speak to you.
02:34Thanks for your time.
02:35You too, Phil. Thank you very much.