Death on the Appymiafasansea

On 15 November 2023, a large and appreciative audience attended the world premiere of Gay Duffield’s latest radio play, Death on the Appymiafasansea. The play’s title was a mystery to all, including those who tried to pronounce it! The performance was a follow up to Gay’s two previous works, Battering at Battery Point and Death on the Tassie Tourist Train.

Music maestro Len Spaans put together some spectacular sound effects and compiled a challenging set of songs in the music quiz that accompanied the play.

The actors played their roles brilliantly and had the audience on the edge of their seats as the good ship Appymniafasansea meandered its way toward Antarctica via Invercargill! A death-defying scream toward the end of the play signalled the gruesome murder of the ship’s captain. It was up to Super Sleuth Surely Shirley, supported by her companion Dolly Bird, to identify the culprit.

Only one member of the audience correctly identified the murderer. It was Roy, the ahoy look-out boy up the mast, who unwittingly did the deed by dropping his scissors from above and hitting the captain ‘fair and square’ in the sternum!

A great night was had by all, and we all left wondering if Gay and Len might have another shocking murder mystery in the pipeline with which to dazzle and traumatise a Battery Point audience.