FringeReview USA 2025
Done To Death, By Jove!
NICHOLAS COLLETT PRODUCTIONS
Genre: Comedy, Physical Comedy, Satire
Venue: Pink Venue
Festival: FringeReview USA, Orlando Fringe
Low Down
“That. Was. Amazing.”
The Great British Detective tradition! Holmes and Watson meet Poirot and Miss Marple (alongside the usual suspects) in a spoof homage – who murdered Lady Fanshawe!? Why is Matron Maudesly so friendly with one of the guests at the Clinic of Hopes and Cures!? Why have the sound cues got mixed up?
Review
Done to Death, By Jove! would be a gripping, intense, and suspenseful murder mystery with an incredible ensemble… had all of them not gotten stuck on that damn I-4. So as the saying goes, the show must go on with two bickering jet-lagged British men. So starts Done to Death, By Jove!, a brilliant comedy in the vein of The Play That Goes Wrong and Noises Off.
Nicholas Collett and Gavin Robertson pretend everything goes wrong, argue with one another, forget lines, and skip cues, but let’s drop the facade: Collett and Robertson are brilliantly rehearsed performers skilled in their craft. The play’s plot within a play is a mishmash of Poirot, Holmes, and Marble mysteries. One more versed in detective dramas will find many references sprinkled throughout. The real intrigue, however, is the backstage drama and banter. Collet and Robertson gossip about affairs and infighting, purposefully forgetting we’re all very much listening and laughing along.
The show felt so effortless (which for a play about things going wrong, says a lot). It was all so silly and stupid and yet perfectly smart – maybe “Brechtian” as Robertson slyly and pretentiously suggests. Whatever it is, it’s near perfect. Collett and Robertson love what they do, which is seen in every mishap and slapstick catastrophe on stage. It is a shame that their full cast did not make it for the performance. Maybe one day the I-4 traffic will clear up (and pigs might fly) – but until then, Collett and Robertson reign supreme. As the audience cheering at the end rejoiced: “That. Was. Amazing.”
