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Murder Before Evensong, 25th September to 14th November
In 1988, the postcard-perfect village of Champton is centred around St Mary’s Church, where traditions, rituals and long-held relationships shape everyday life. The parish is a tightly-knit community, full of familiar faces and quietly simmering rivalries. At its heart are Canon Daniel Clement, his formidable and ever-watchful mother Audrey, and his actor brother Theo.
When a shocking murder shatters Champton’s quiet routines, the calm surface of village life begins to crack as suspicion spreads and long-buried secrets rise to the surface.
With the police searching for answers and fear rippling through the parish, Daniel finds himself drawn into a dangerous investigation. As he begins to piece together clues, motives and hidden histories, a darker truth about the village slowly comes to light.
Set against the rhythms of church life, Murder Before Evensong is a gripping new stage adaptation of Reverend Richard Coles’ bestselling mystery. As the bodies mount and the past refuses to stay buried, Daniel must hold his fractured community together… and uncover the killer in their midst.
Don’t miss this thrilling world premiere - where every pew holds a secret, and anyone could be guilty of murder.
Pinocchio, 25th November to 3rd January
This Christmas, the most famous puppet in the world is returning to the Watermill Theatre in our smash-hit musical adaptation of
Pinocchio. Having played to packed audiences and been rated as one of The Guardian’s top 10 theatre shows in 2024, this magical, timeless tale is back to offer a festive treat for the whole family.
Reviews of Murder Before Evensong
25th September to 14th November 2026
Review from Newbury Theatre.
Paul Hart and Shaun McKenna have adapted Reverend Richard Coles’ novel for the Watermill stage using eight actors to play the 17 characters with all except the main character Canon Daniel Clement having two or three roles, involving some quick costume changes. Set in the 1980s, the play portrays village life well with various factions at odds with one another.
The trouble starts when the Canon announces from the pulpit that the church needs to sacrifice some of the pews at the back of the church for the construction of a lavatory. This causes consternation among many of the villagers who strongly oppose it, particularly the flower arrangers, and disturbs the apparent peace of village life.
We know from the title that there’s going to be a murder and it comes fairly late in the first half. Cue the arrival of DS Vanloo (played by Jaz Singh Deol, who conveniently also played the murdered man). Daniel and the DS form an unlikely friendly relationship as they try to sort whodunnem (yes, there are more murders).
Ian Hallard is the main character, Canon Daniel, played as being slightly diffident which worked well.
The pace was somewhat slow, with characters waiting for their cue lines to come.
The set by Ceci Calf was impressive with full use made of the back wall with projections as well as backgrounds being lowered from above, but these had a problem: they wobbled for a long time before settling down.
All in all, a mixed bag but with much humour and strong performances from the cast.
PAUL SHAVE
Review from The Times.
A show with grit as well as cosiness
★★★
Anybody swooning over Andy Burnham’s ideas of localism should glance at
parish politics, where pettiness runs rampant and a nose out of joint can
quickly lead to an apocalypse in a teacup. In this adaptation of Richard
Coles’s cosy-crime novel Murder Before Evensong at Newbury Watermill
Theatre, Canon Daniel Clement finds the forces of darkness ranged against
him after suggesting from the pulpit that his church might have a lavatory
installed.
Coles’s Eighties-set novel — the first in a series — leapt straight to the top of the Sunday Times bestseller list in 2022, proving once more our country’s infinite appetite for villages, vice and vindictiveness.
Paul Hart’s production spirits us to the picturesque surroundings of Champton, where we leap between St Mary’s Church, the local stately home and the vicarage, among other locations, discovering parish intrigue against the backdrop of Rachel Sampley’s vivid video projections.
As the law of Agatha Christie — who should surely be our country’s patron saint — demands, it’s not long before a body is found. Unlike the Channel 5 adaptation, where the corpse count starts almost immediately, Paul Hart and Shaun McKenna’s rewrite sticks more closely to the novel, initiating us into the neighbourhood’s rivalries and hidden secrets before a man is murdered with secateurs.
One of Coles’s interesting perceptions is that a parish clergyman’s role is not dissimilar to a detective’s. Both engage with people at their most vulnerable and flawed; both, albeit in different ways, aim to right society’s wrongs. As Canon Daniel Clement, Ian Hallard’s amiable sensitivity is gradually revealed to be a strength as he negotiates a minefield of territorial flower arrangers, hidden sexualities and the papal infallibility of his mother, Audrey.
It’s initially problematic that the script deploys all the book’s obvious gags while losing the perceptive wit that makes Coles’s writing a cut above in the cosy-crime world. At points the dialogue feels staler than a churchwarden’s scone, but then the plot starts to cast its spell, combining painful memories of the Second World War and the struggles of people young and old fighting different levels of sexual prejudice.
A boisterous, if uneven, multi-role-acting ensemble jollies things along, with Ajani Cabey particularly strong as social outsider Harvey, David Hounslow as an unreconstructed landowner, and Kate Russell-Smith as the vivacious Honoria. Whether you’re more inclined to Christie or Christianity, this is a perfectly enjoyable concoction for those obsessed with vice and vestries.
RACHEL HALLIBURTON