Rev Richard Coles's Village Mystery Murder Before Evensong Reaches Watermill Stage

The Rev Richard Coles's detecting rector, Canon Daniel Clement, has joined the ranks of stage sleuths. Murder Before Evensong, adapted from Coles's 2022 novel, opened at the Watermill theatre in Newbury, where it runs until 14 November.

Ian Hallard impresses as the crime-solving clergyman, according to the Guardian's review. The production is a thoughtful adaptation of the book that launched Coles's series about a rector who investigates murders in his parish. Coles, an accomplished broadcaster and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant, wrote the source novel in 2022.

Clement follows a crowded pulpit of literary detectives recently transferred to the stage. Poirot, Marple, Rebus, Barnaby and Grace have all investigated cases in theatres in recent seasons. Coles's canon is the latest addition to that lineup.

The novel's 1980s setting serves the plot in two ways. It spares the characters the alibi-limiting restrictions of mobile phones and CCTV, and it allows the inhabitants of Champton — Coles's fictional benefice — to have living links with the second world war. The plot connects the canon's modest plans to install a lavatory at St Mary's church to events buried in the village's military history, events that ultimately led to serial killing.

The Guardian's critic finds the adaptation sometimes strained by its material. The production carries a villageful of suspects, victims and doubling actors, and the staging occasionally struggles under that load. Hallard's central performance anchors the show, and the adaptation earns the reviewer's description of it as thoughtful despite the pressure of its crowded cast.

The staging places the mystery in the intimate surroundings of the Watermill, a venue whose small scale suits the cosiness the review identifies in the material. The critic frames the piece as a village mystery that "squeezes into cosy theatre" — a form with a proven commercial audience, given the recent wave of televised and staged crime adaptations.

Coles has built the Clement series across multiple novels since 2022, and a successful stage run at Newbury could point the property toward further life in theatre or on screen. Audiences can judge Hallard's rector for themselves at the Watermill until 14 November.