Simon Ward reviews Grave Mistake at the Hope Theatre

Matthew Ballantyne and Toby Hampton’s new play is a Joe Orton-esque farce set in a funeral home. Burke and Sons has been a family business for generations and is now in the hands of sisters Regina (Gabrielle Nellis-Pain) and Harriet (Laurel Marks). However, Regina’s reckless profligacy means that the business finds itself on the brink of bankruptcy. With the aid of hapless new boy Malcolm (Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson), they have to somehow meet the demands of both grieving widows Mrs Clarke and Mrs Farrington, while keeping Reverend Plumpkin onside (all played by Molly-Rose Treves).

If it sounds rather like the pilot episode of a sitcom, that’s exactly what it feels like. We can well imagine the relationship between the sparring sisters developing over time, and Fogarty-Graveson does well to make Malcolm a convincingly well-meaning bungler. Marks stands out as the put-upon but actually competent younger sister, who could no doubt turn the company around if left to her own devices. And Nellis-Pain is every inch the over-indulged and narcissistic older sibling. It would actually be fun to see how these three might muddle their way through an ongoing series of scrapes. As it is, they find themselves with the seemingly impossible task of running two funerals simultaneously, meeting mutually contradictory demands, amid endless misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Toby Hampton directs, as well as co-writing, so he is reponsible for drilling the cast to ensure that the timing is impeccable, with somewhat mixed results. There is much comedy business revolving around Treves’s multi-roling but I’m not convinced that it might not have been better to have one or two more actors to lighten the load. I find that it can be stressful watching this kind of show in any case – in theory audience laughter should relieve the stress but you cannot always rely on the laughs landing. There is also an expectation that the play will build to a climax where all the moving parts come together perfectly, justifying all the preceding tension. While there are certainly funny moments, it doesn’t quite achieve the big payoff. It is, in the end, an enjoyable evening of theatre, where we meet some intriguing characters, an interesting situation, with potential for further development.

Grave Mistake is running at the Hope Theatre, 207 Upper Street, London N1 1RL until Saturday 7th June