Prescription For Murder is a comic murder mystery play  following one week in the life of Dr. Richard Forth, his friends, his wife, his cleaner and a mysterious stranger who arrives at the door making some alarming enquiries. What unfolds over the next hour and 20 minutes is an, at times uneven, but mostly entertaining tale of comic intrigue helped by its ensemble cast.
The cast very much impressed upon me, and they all perform the parts admirably, save for a marginal number of line gaffs and false starts. Whilst watching the play, Graham Bell really stood out for his portrayal of Dr. Forth, with a good balance of absent mindedness and tartness that leaves just the right window of doubt as to his character's underlying nature.  Clear favourites were Mary and Allan Haigh (played by Sally North and Gordon Brainwood) who are both excellent. Between the two is a  balancing chemistry, with Mary being carried with a very naturalistic genuine air, contrasting well with Allan’s constant airy anecdotes - relating any incident within his life to “an incident at the Bowels club the other day”. Also, I couldn’t help but laugh when Sally North, who played Mary, said the word “Thyroid”. In my defence, it’s a funny word.
Despite the generally strong cast the production isn’t without its issues. The play has only one set for all its scenes and, although it’s well realised,  it’s this confinement that leads to scenes feeling somewhat repetitive. Another problem arising from this is that on a couple of occasions the play unfortunately leans towards the “people sitting around talking about things that have happened” as opposed to the more popular “things happen” school of theatre.
Overall, the play is something of a mixed bag, with strong characterisation being offset by a few weak jokes.  It has a number of superb moments within it and the final plot reveal is nice but did require a little more explaining than a simple plot twist should. Although the plot felt somewhat stretched out at the running time, it's still a solid, competently performed murder mystery farce. I’ll leave you now with my favourite exchange from the play:
Dr. Forth: “That Dam he’s proposing will cause more problems than the droughts it’ll prevent!”
Allan Haigh: “Well the plans aren’t concrete.”