It will be murder, utter mayhem and mirth at Dereham Memorial Hall next week when Dereham Operatic Society stages The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery.

It will be murder, utter mayhem and mirth at Dereham Memorial Hall next week when Dereham Operatic Society stages The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery.

The spoof play, from the pens of David McGillvray and Walter Zerlin jnr, has been described as 'Acorn Antiques meets Agatha Christie' because everything the guild's thespians touch goes disastrously wrong.

The play sees Inspector O'Reilly trying to solve the murder of a member of a dead rich man's family just before the will is to be read in the ancestral home on a remote clifftop. To his increasing frustration and perplexity, his suspects die off mysteriously and frequently just as he thinks he is close to solving the crime.

And, as the plot thickens, every kind of disaster befalls the accident-prone Farndale Avenue ladies: falling scenery, awful effects, missing props, indisposed cast members and tensions between the stage crew included.

Meanwhile, the ladies of the guild carry on stoically with the business of their monthly meeting - including recipes and a quiz - with their chairman apparently blissfully aware that anything has gone wrong...

The play guarantees laughs aplenty and can be seen at Dereham Memorial Hall next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with curtain up at 7.30pm. Tickets at �7 are available from Just Kitchenware at Dereham on 01362 699899.