Under the Table Spoiler Free Review

Under the Table - 4 out of 5 stars
Flinders University Performing Arts Society
TICKETS: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1593214

Under the Table is a comedic murder-mystery in the Agatha Christie mould, and playwright Sean Guy has done exactly what that genre demands: laid the clues out fairly, kept the pace moving, and trusted the audience to catch up by the final scene. The mystery satisfies, and the comedy mostly lands, with only the occasional joke sailing over the heads of cast and audience alike.

Brad Lowe anchors the investigation as Sergeant Melpo, a competent, no-fuss detective played by a competent, no-fuss actor. Lowe finds real texture in the character's slow-building frustration, tempered throughout by a genuine, kindly patience for his junior officer.

Jessie Hill, as Officer Thalia, leans hard into the comedy of the role — goofy, perpetually a step behind, and armed with a set of facial expressions that mine maximum laughs from the script's crasser jokes.

Brandon Calmiano's Edward Hush — victim, and figment of the police's collective imagination — struts through the show with the presence of a man who's never met a moment he couldn't make about himself. Calmiano plays constantly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall with a quip for every occasion, and it's a performance that understands exactly what kind of ghost this character is meant to be.

Of the three suspects, Grace Gwiazdzinski's Margaret handles the show's trickiest structural demand — sliding between her own version of events and impersonations of the other suspects' retellings — with real clarity.

Bonnie Hains, as the estranged sister Ophelia, relishes the decades-old sibling feud at the heart of the case, letting the flashbacks reveal just how differently each character sees her.

Aiden Fitzgerald's Himmat could easily have been a one-note "tosser" — a business partner humiliated by both financial loss and a long-rejected romantic pursuit of Ophelia — but Fitzgerald finds an awkward, fish-out-of-water quality that gives the character real depth.

Special mention must go to Annabel Whitford's Doctor, a role that reads as though it was originally written for a man, and likely a lecherous one. Whitford instead plays the part for bumbling comedy, fumbling every attempt at flirtation with the Sergeant, the Officer, and the suspects alike. A run of physical comedy in the show's opening does a lot of the heavy lifting here — who knew a thermometer could embarrass a doctor this thoroughly?

Alana Lymn's direction — and her first attempt at composing for one of her own shows — pulls together a genuinely well-oiled ensemble. The comic timing throughout is a credit to the rehearsal room: overlapping dialogue and cut-offs between actors land smoothly and naturally, which is no small feat given how unforgiving comedy is when the timing's off. Lymn's score does a lot of work too, swinging between detective-noir atmosphere and moments of genuine comic timing — particularly underscoring the Doctor's bumbling exits. The one technical letdown is volume: the incidental music occasionally overpowers dialogue at the start of a scene, a balance issue that should be an easy fix.

The design elements are more mixed. Costumes (Marley Haitana) do quiet, effective work, helping the audience place who's who from the moment the cast steps on stage. The set is simple by necessity — a desk doubling as both the doctor's office and the police interview room, a dining table, a drinks cabinet backed by a single flat, and the armchair where the death occurred — but some scene transitions move furniture that more careful blocking could have avoided entirely. Lighting (Caitlyn Williams) does solid work distinguishing flashbacks as told from each suspect's point of view, but the cueing needs tightening: watching a light visibly track across empty stage to find its next focus, more than once, suggests a lack of programming time rather than a lack of care.

There were also some general diction and clarity issues scattered across the cast at various points — likely just opening night nerves rather than anything more concerning.

None of this undercuts what Lymn and her cast have built here. It's clear she's worked with every performer to draw out the soul of their character rather than settling for surface-level comic types — the ensemble feels lived-in and cohesive in a way that only comes from careful, generous direction. A little more attention to the technical side would have let the stage match the performances beat for beat.

Under the Table is another notch in FUPAS's belt of solidly produced and performed plays, further cementing their place in the Adelaide theatre landscape as a genuine training ground — and proving ground — for young actors starting out, or finding their way back to the stage.

If you don't solve the mystery yourself before the end, don't worry — neither did Officer Thalia.

- Scott

Disclaimer: The owner of A Thousand Words was involved in this production. The opinions expressed in this review are independent and solely those of the author.