By all criteria, The Nutter Next Door is an archetypal piece of fringe theatre. Two actors, a relatively minimalist set, few props, a simplistic sound and lighting plot, and less than an hour in duration. The play has a distinct air of a devised theatre piece, ideal for the shorter productions beloved by fringe seasonal schedulers.
The audience are ushered into a typical late teen bedroom, with bubble gum pink walls, and dominated by The Backstreet Boys on every level, via innumerable posters, large cushions, duvet and pillowcases. A slim pink chest of drawers with heart-shaped openings completes the rather twee set, intriguingly with a range of pill bottles all lined up with military precision.
The action is kick-started by (of course!) a bolt of lightning and a clap of thunder, which propel a rather panicky Catherine from her bed, armed with a baseball bat.
A frenzied knocking at the door brings in Mary, who delivers the alarming news that a killer is on the loose in their road. Trapped by the storm and their own fears, the two neighbours, who have a mistrustful, antagonistic, almost feuding relationship, are thrown together and decide to unmask the killer before a further murder is committed…
The Nutter Next Door bills itself as “…a dark comedy murder mystery, fast, funny and dangerously unpredictable.”
Certainly, there is a lot of energy underpinning the piece from both actors, and the narrative rattles along at a pace.
Petrina Fitzpatrick, as Catherine, is a mass of neuroses and compulsive obsessiveness. Determined and unwavering in the essential obvious correctness of her beliefs and opinions, she is completely unaware of how her preoccupations and phobias may come across to others. There is no room for equivocation in her mindset and opinions. At times, there was more than an echo of a young Hyacinth Bouquet in the characterisation.
Mary (Eleanora Morgan) is a more nuanced and thoughtful character. There are hidden depths to Mary, with an intriguing hint at a colourful past that has necessitated her having to wear an ankle tag. Allusions to her past boyfriends and experimentation with soft drugs suggest that there is some grit in the oyster here. Whilst ostensibly more level-headed than her strange neighbour, Mary is still liable to be infected with some of Catherine’s wilder conspiracy theories and conjectures and needs little persuasion to adopt the persona of detective and “crack the case.”
Both actors throw themselves into their roles wholeheartedly and deliver the dialogue with celerity and accuracy, maintaining an often breakneck speed. They both have an innate sense of timing and know how to pause the action to get the laugh or emphasise an effect.
The pre-existing tension between the two neighbours is nicely framed at the outset (as Catherine puts it “You’d sleep with a baseball bat if you lived next door to you”), simmers and escalates well throughout the piece.
In a piece such as this, which is the result of a series of ideas layered into a devised piece of theatre, there are some gaps and ambiguities in the narrative that would improve the overall tightness of the show.
Whilst Catherine breaks the fourth wall from the start, and effectively interacts with the audience through a pause, a glance, and a change in facial expression, Mary never does this, which unbalances the structural balance of the plot. Are we the audience active or passive participants?
In an intimate venue such as this particular theatre, certain points are also overemphasised, and confident assertion tips over into shouty declaration, especially with Catherine’s character. Less is certainly more here.
There are also some very interesting areas that are not satisfactorily pursued.
Mary’s backstory, for instance, could be more effectively fleshed out. What had she done that necessitated her wearing a tagged device? Her quiet, thoughtful reference to her essential loneliness was also rather thrown away and could have been developed to give more heft to the character.
Similarly, there is a touching moment when Catherine refers to the reason for her obsessive fascination with The Backstreet Boys band, a passionate preoccupation that had resulted in her receiving a banning order preventing her from pursuing her compulsive stalking of band members. It was implied that this behaviour stemmed from the loss of her mother, an emotional juxtaposition with the freneticism that had gone before. Again, an opportunity lost for deeper character development. Likewise, the throwaway line that Catherine had been granted the house in her mother’s will might have been pursued a little further, which may have brought a greater clarity to her relationships both with Mary and the other inhabitants of the property.
The gradual sense of rapprochement as Mary and Catherine slowly suppress their mutual distrust and antagonism during the course of their “investigation” and attain a greater understanding of each other is well observed and pointed, but the overall effect of this is lost in a rather hasty and unsatisfying race towards a denouement that relies too heavily on “the final twist”.
There are some very good ideas in this play. Both actors attack their roles with brio and passion, but a greater concentration upon the hinterland of the two characters would have given a richer texture to the narrative thrust, allowed them both more depth and structural intensity, and delivered a greater cohesive rigidity to the plot.
This having been said, The Nutter Next Door is an interesting attempt at an inventive piece of devised theatre which gives more than a hint of future successes and achievements for the team involved.
Review by Johnny Oxford
The Nutter Next Door is a dark comedy murder mystery set on a very ordinary British road – the sort where everyone knows everyone else’s business, whether they like it or not.
When a storm cuts the power. A murder breaks the silence.
Trapped together, two feuding neighbours race to unmask a killer before the flute plays again.
As the hours pass, theories harden, tempers fray and the line between logic and obsession begins to blur. After all, when everyone’s a bit unhinged, who decides where “normal” ends.
Fast, funny and dangerously unpredictable, The Nutter Next Door is a dark comedy whodunnit where suspicion turns savage and nobody is quite as normal as they seem.
Cast: Petrina Fitzpatrick and Eleanora Morgan
Written and directed by Eleanora Morgan
THE NUTTER NEXT DOOR
Hen & Chickens Theatre
1 to 3 April 2026
