Terry Pratchett’s Mort

Boundary Players

William Penney Theatre

BOUNDARY Players chose Mort, part of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs for the final play in their current season. 

Michelle Middleditch assembled a large cast of mixed ability for the twenty plus different characters needed.

Leading the action was a confident David White as Death; he sported an impressive skeleton costume, black cape and flashing blue lights for eyes.

He was ably accompanied by Gavin Crowe as the apprentice Mort which, he emphasised, was short for Mortimer. The action revolved around this clever play on words.

With a labyrinthine plot – too convoluted to explain – the action was in a series of short scenes on a largely plain black set and the premise loosely concerned a certain assassination and its possibly not taking place.

The scene changes were swiftly and efficiently done, the costumes and props imaginative and effective but the action was uneven. 

There were strong performances from Alan Munday as Albert and Louise Hayling as Prince Keli and Pat Archer and Alice Grundy in a variety of roles. 

This was a bold choice for Boundary Players with which to end their varied season, which also included Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and Noel Coward’s Hayfever.

The evening I attended had quite a few Terry Pratchett fans in who chuckled in the relevant places but as a novice to Discworld I was a bit mystified and felt that an explanatory note or two in the programme would have added to my enjoyment and understanding of the production.

Chris Horton