A Murder of Crows review from 2004

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...Also uncovered this little cracker of a review from nine years ago... I play 'the ineptitude of Charlie Cage effectively'. Wow! ...amazing that Oscar isn't mine already!

A Murder of Crows

Chance Factory
Written by Steve Jansen
'All new black hearted comedy, diamonds, 'offal', suitcases and criminals all cemented together for everyone who has ever laughed when they shouldn't have'.

A cleverly written, technically ambitious, comedy crime drama, which cracks on a pace.

Starring Lindsay Bennett as the very sexy Amy Ravendark, and Cathy Collins as the extremely sarcastic Lillian Aviary. Also Robert McCaffrey, and Stephen Jansen as a pair of daft blokes. Charlie Cage and Frankie Yale rob a bank (with hilarious results of course) because two strong women make them do it. (This is rather pleasing for the feminists in the audience).

McCaffrey portrays the ineptitude of Charlie Cage effectively from the first scene where he is shouting and panicking during the execution of an ultimately bungled safe break. Bennett's character, Ravendark, proves herself to be an evil Emma Peel who conjures up sick and appalling methods for disposing of people who are in her way. Aviary (Collins) is equally nasty and appealing; both revealing a little more of what makes people tick when they think their time might be up. Cage (driller killer) too proves himself to have hidden depths.

And what happened to Frankie? Go and see it if you want to find out but lets just say that Yale is played very amiably in the second scene by 2 lbs of liver and a string of sausages.

Stephen Jansen has produced a well-constructed short piece with a nice balance of characters and well executed changes in mood, (No pun intended). Excellent use of projected black and white images (with a good soundtrack), effectively adds interest and moves the story forward.

Witty use of language, note the name dropping and look out for amusing similes and homophones involving Jimmy Hendrix and margaritas.

This is a good night out, a real laugh if you are not easily offended by offal, sadistic killing and occasional use of the F word.

Nicola Martin

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