Water Lane Theatre Company staging Secondary Cause of Death at South Mill Arts in Bishop’s Stortford

A lovely evening will descend into chaos as the body count rises when Water Lane Theatre Company stages a comedy murder mystery later this month.

The award-winning amateur group is performing Secondary Cause of Death at South Mill Arts in Bishop’s Stortford from Thursday to Saturday, March 27 to 29.

It is the next light-hearted instalment in the Inspector Pratt trilogy, written by Peter Gordon, following the company’s staging of Murdered to Death in 2023.

Don’t worry if you missed the first production, all should become clear…

It’s 1939 and storm clouds are gathering over Europe. In a time of espionage and uncertainty, of course nothing is as it seems.

Bagshot House, now a hotel for discerning guests, is once again the setting and audiences can look forward to some previous cast members reprising their roles.

Andy Roberts will be returning as the blustering Colonel Charles Craddock, John Bell will - hopefully! - be solving the case as bumbling Inspector Pratt and SJ Pyne this time is Lady Isadora Polluck.

Penny Reeves, who played amateur sleuth Miss Maple in Murdered to Death, rejoins as her sister Cynthia Maple, host of the murder mystery evening where the action unfolds.

They are joined by a melting pot of Cluedo-worthy characters, including Count Puchlik who has fled from Poland, ATS Captain Henrietta Woolmer-Cardington and upper-class widow Lady Pollock, not to mention the housekeeper, cook, nurse, flamboyant thespian and a convicted murderer.

Is anyone who they seem? Who has a vendetta? Who has a secret agenda? Just how many spies are there? Can Inspector Pratt crack the case? Book tickets at southmillarts.co.uk to find out.

There are performances at 7.30pm on all three nights as well as a 3pm matinee on the Saturday. Tickets are priced £19 for the evening performances (£17.50 for over-60s and under-16s) and £17.50 (no concessions) for the Saturday matinee.