People Show formed in 1966 and The Detective Show is their 121st production. This was my first encounter with People Show, and it won’t be my last – the show was absolutely hilarious.
To begin with, Gareth Brierley takes us through the copy on our flyers to explain that this was written six months before the show was made, so to avoid any disappointment or confusion there are some edits to be made. Gareth throws out most of the copy, leaving us with ‘He is in love with a tour guide’. This has made it into the show, but (he explains) the rest is not particularly relevant, as after many conversations in the pub the idea that the lead character would be ‘a fictional character in a novel’ was considered too difficult, too ‘meta’.
The performers introduce themselves, and so Fiona Creese and Mark Long shake hands: ‘Hello, my name’s Fiona, nice to meet you.’ Mark Long starts to tell us that he has been a member of People Show since it was founded in 1966, but is quickly shushed by Gareth – this mock-bullying continues throughout the show, the legendary Mark Long’s presence dealt with in a comic manner by Gareth’s consistent belittling (although Mark comes out on top in the end).
The performers step in and out of the action (in a way that is relatively normal in contemporary performance, but which was pioneered by the company back in the 1960s) and the ins and outs of the performance experiment are explained to us with great precision throughout. For example, onstage is a furry table – a small table with fun-fur stapled around it – and this, Gareth explains, is the narrator’s table. When he is at this table, he is a ‘real’ person and can talk to us directly.
So, the next thought is: what do you need for a detective show? A murder, clues, detectives, the forensic scientist, a love story and a twist! People Show 121: The Detective Show includes: the murder of an Agatha Christie tour guide, some tangible clues (one of which is a fly), three colourful character detectives, a forensic science teacher, a love story that spends most of its time in a bad Italian restaurant, a few outrageous twists, and a seagull salad!
The show revels in the ridiculous and the action is stopped repeatedly by Gareth who apologises for the awful accents or for the mime scenes, which he feels very uncomfortable about. The constant self-referential quality of the work makes the shammy props and off-kilter acting all the more entertaining. The show celebrates the joy of the detective story, and its the fast wit and close attention to what really makes a detective story work that keeps us involved throughout, the company starting the story near the end and unravelling the mystery through a series of flashbacks. It is full of side steps, bad jokes and the occasional abstract movement section, and a whole lot of cultural references are thrown in for good measure (the Arts Council, post-modernism, the relevance or not of the fourth wall).
Apart from any other reasons, People Show 121 is a must-see for Mark Long’s Italian accent, Fiona Creese’s paper bag, the Poirot routine, and Gareth Brierley’s masterdom of the furry table. It’s a fact-packed and fancy-free show, exposing the technique of making theatre whilst remaining consistently funny and entertaining.