Mayhem Comes to Mumberley in Melodramatic Romp, ‘The Mumberley Inheritance’
Mayhem, by the name of Mr. Marmaduke, comes to call at Mumberley Manor and chaos ensues. The Mumberley Inheritance, written by Warren C. Graves, staged at Domino Theatre with director Sara Beck and assistant director Christian Milanovic, is a fun romp that lampoons the conventions of melodrama.
Patriarch Sir Roger Mumberley (Phil Perrin) has, unbeknownst to his children Jack (Ben Hudson) and Daphne (Emily Kelly), frittered away much of the family fortune. However, Jack has been in “The Canadas” for “six long years” in hopes that he can find out the secret to the elusive hidden treasure of Mumberley legend. Daphne is at home awaiting Jack’s return and planning to marry her heroic beau, Rodney Stoutheart (Jarret Hains).
However, villain Mr. Marmaduke Mayhem (Craig Norton) surfaces to disturb the household peace, with his evil plot to marry Daphne in order to get his dastardly hands on the family treasure. The plot thickens with additional complications from loyal maidservant Dotty (Krista Garrett), Mayhem’s unwilling henchman Crispin Cringe (Craig Deacon), and Polly (Michelle Fields), a nurse and consummate professional.
The cast are clearly having fun with this comedic adventure. In particular, Norton is hilarious as Mayhem, even maintaining a villainous accent reminiscent of Sir Rottingham in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Waggling his eyebrows and luxurious mustache with equal vigour, and enveloped in a red silk-lined black cape, he provides a classic villainous persona while clearly having a lot of fun with the role. A shout-out to the costume designer, Bridget Overvelde—everyone looked fantastic for a period piece, with amusing additions like Jack’s lumberjack-esque aesthetic. All performers understand the assignment, playing their character tropes very well.
Additionally, Deborah Schuurmans deserves great recognition as the pianist, providing phenomenal musical accompaniment throughout the performance. Although Schuurmans is an outsider to the side of the stage, the characters occasionally interact with her, offering tips in her jar or raising their eyebrows as she underscores their speech with a particularly ominous tune, to great comedic effect.
The characters often break the fourth wall, and the performance in fact encourages audience participation through different responses, as indicated on a screen concealed in the set. We “boo”ed and “hiss”ed Mayhem, cheered on young Stoutheart, and repeated “six long years” in reference to Jack’s time spent in “The Canadas.” While these responses are sometimes a little too repetitive, they were well-received by the audience who enthusiastically joined into the refrain.
The gorgeous set, designed by Chris McKinnon, is really impressive and centers on the main hall of Mumberley, with two staircases leading to the upper landing and rooms, as well as two doors leading out to the front entrance and garden, respectively. The walls are decorated with portraits of Sir Roger himself (with one representing his late wife), the largest of which is actually a screen which switches to indicate audience responses at the appropriate time (“Hurrah!” for Stoutheart!). While this is a clever design and also indicative of Sir Roger’s somewhat self-centered (but well-meaning) character, it looked as if the paintings in question were created by AI, which was a bit disappointing to see from fellow artists. While I don’t expect a volunteer-run organization to produce time-consuming, personalized oil paintings for a set piece (or indeed, expect a professional production to do so), it would have been nice to see an alternative to using artificially-generated pieces, such as drawing from vintage photographs (in the public domain), which could have been equally amusing with their outdated hairdos and outfits.
The selection of Graves’ play for the production was a great choice, given its hilarious parody of melodramatic tropes. The production is well-executed, and clearly assisted by how enthusiastically the cast and crew participate in creating a fun show. I’m not sure whether the actors or the audience were having the most fun with the performance—suffice to say, the show is both well-done and very enjoyable, making for a truly entertaining evening.
‘The Mumberley Inheritance’ is playing at Domino Theatre until September 21, 2024. Find out more information here. For tickets, visit the Kingston Grand box office here.
