The Daughter of Time - Charing Cross Theatre - Review

Is a man innocent until proven guilty? How do you prove a case of murder without a corpse? And how exactly do you solve a crime that happened 400 years ago?

All of these questions are picked apart and truly explored in ‘The Daughter of Time’, a fascinating and interesting production currently playing at the quaint Charing Cross Theatre. Inspector Alan Grant (Rob Pomfret) is laid up in hospital with a broken leg after another case went wrong in the 1950s and in order to stave off the boredom, his best friend and wannabee love interest Marta Hallard, the Shakespearean actress (Rachel Pickup) brings him a collection of portraits of faces from history to test out his skills of knowing a good or bad person’s face at a glance. One photo in particular catches his eye; the famous portrait of Richard III, the man painted as a heartless ruthless leader who is said to have had his nephews murdered in the Tower of London. The inspector decides that he doesn’t look like a killer, so sets out to prove his innocence with the help of eager young American researcher Brent Carradine (Harrison Sharpe) and his right-hand man Sergeant Williams (Sanya Adegbola).

Many believe that it was Shakespeare that ultimately created the image of Richard III that the history books tell us, the man who tried to take the throne from his brother and who imprisoned his young nephews in the tower, having them killed to ensure that he would become king. But is that what really happened. ‘The Daughter of Time’ takes the courtroom stylings of picking apart a case, complete with a board covered in pins and string connecting the ‘suspects’, to the hospital room as mostly from his bed, Inspector Alan Grant attempts to solve one of history’s most intriguing murders. Alongside this, we have a secondary plot. Pickup’s Marta loves Alan, and knows he loves her in return, she simply wants him to admit it. Enter Nigel Templeton (Noah Huntley), another Shakespearean actor, preparing to play Richard III himself. Together they come up with a scheme to pretend that they are engaged in order to coax out a love confession from the straight-faced inspector. But can they keep the act up, and can Templeton bring his own take on Richard alive when Grant is pulling apart everything that he thought he knew about him?

Whilst this investigative piece of drama could easily be billed as a treat only to the history buffs, you don’t have to be an expert on Richard and the Tudors to find enjoyment in this play. There is an element of ‘Cosy Crime’ about it, a gang of mismatched people coming together to solve a mystery; the serious inspector, the young newcomer with a sharp as a pin mind, the lovers, and not to forget the two young nurses who find themselves drawn into the case. Hafsa Abbassi’s Nurse Ingham, whilst not as interested in Richard and his case perhaps, is excited to no end by the flow of theatre performers frequenting the hospital as she shares her love for the theatre and Janna Fox’s Nurse Darroll knows her history, has a love for Richard the Lionheart and believes Richard III to be the murderer that history painted him to be.

Spending a great deal of the shows 2 hour and 45-minute running time in his hospital bed, Rob Pomfret manages to create a dynamic and interesting character in Inspector Alan Grant. At first, we see a man down on his luck, beginning to doubt himself and wondering where his career is going, but the spark in him is reignited in the discovery of Richard’s story. Solving crime is his life, and in this 400-year-old cold case, he finds excitement and a strong sense of justice. It would be easy to see him as a no-nonsense man of the law, cold and serious, but there is a softer side. He speaks of Richard almost as a friend, and he takes Harrison Sharpe’s young Brent Carradine under his wing, inspiring a love of the case in him also.

The character of Brent Carradine is instantly lovable, and Sharpe wins over the audience with an apparent ease. Having become a researcher to follow his love, another actress, to London, Carradine is full of life and energy, throwing himself in the deep end of Grant’s investigation. Sharpe earns many a laugh throughout, lamenting the struggles of his relationship and desperately searching for some French cheese needed to make a deal with a librarian. Rachel Pickup’s Marta Hallard has some lovely moments; her partnership with Pomfret’s Grant is believable and sweet, whilst her friendship with Huntley’s Nigel is comical as they plot and plan together. She gives Hallard a kind heart, well-meaning in everything she does.  

In a piece that is somewhat lacking a villain (unless of course, you see Richard III himself as the bad guy here), I suppose that Nigel Templeton could find himself falling into that slot, but Noah Huntley instead creates a comedic character, a man so passionate about Shakespeare that he doesn’t wish the apparent truths discovered by Grant to damage or alter the image of Richard III that he has in mind. Whilst a suggestion of Templeton being homosexual and using his plot with Hallard as his cover is only briefly touched upon and could be explored further, Huntley’s Templeton doesn’t lose his sense of fun, bickering with Grant and calling on Marta to support him through his performances as the famous King.

It feels important to mention that, yes, this show does boast a lengthy 2 hours and 45-minute running time, and yes, the first act does at times feel a little long, taking time to introduce not only the characters but the centuries long crime case, the story flows. With such a famous case at its core, the time, I feel, is needed to allow many points and avenues of inquiry to be explored. It’s wordy, and at times a little complicated, in its explanations of different historical events, but there is something captivating about it. You find yourself drawn into the case, as if watching a modern-day courtroom drama, and although set in the 1950’s and exploring a 400-year-old crime, there are elements that could be applied to the modern day. There are many references to historians writing about things that they weren’t there to experience themselves, and comments about how when events are written about, they are taken to be the truth. Yes, they may be talking about respected historians and the world-famous Shakespeare here, but in reality, they could be talking about how someone can make a comment about something that happened online in today’s age and countless people will believe it to be the truth. It’s been hundreds of years, but it still happens.

Bob Sterrett’s set deserves praise here. Whilst the vast majority of the play takes place in the hospital room, a hinged wall with slickly moved to reveal a table at the grand Ivy where Hallard and Templeton spend their evenings after performing, and the simple use of a deep red curtain being pulled half across the space creates the stage of the Old Vic, simple yet highly effective.

Whilst the case of Richard III and the princes in the tower may never be solved completely, ‘The Daughter of Time’ presents several fascinating points. We do now know that more about Richard, since the discovery of his body in that carpark, but there is still mystery there. If he didn’t murder the princes himself, or pay someone to do it, then who did? This production is food for thought, and something that could send those interested in this period of history down a whole new route of research. It’s incredibly detailed, heavily researched and wonderfully interesting, part history documentary, part courtroom drama, part love story and part exploration of friendship, a must see for fans of both history and those much-loved Sunday night crime shows.