The outcome of a vicious war centres on the sailing ship Cassandra but who can new passenger Bernice Summerfield trust?
The outcome of a vicious war centres on the sailing ship Cassandra but who can new passenger Bernice Summerfield trust?
The Secret of Cassandra
If there’s one complaint I have about this release it’s the start… Not the strange, actually oddly effective introduction scene with Bernice stranded helpless on a desert island, but the light throwaway backstory that explains how she got there. Holiday cruising on a planet torn apart by bloody war? After her previous experiences in similar situations, really? Either she didn’t do any homework at all and walked into it blind or she really, really was drunk. It’s a small complaint, with no significant baring on the actual content of the play, but as a reason for Bernice being where she is I find it annoyingly out of character.
Whilst we’re discussing the start also of annoyance is the ‘Bondesque’ theme song, which makes an unwelcome return from Dragon’s Wrath. It made sense for that story, it was misplaced but at least you could see the ambition. Here it’s overly bombastic, clichéd, unashamedly crass tone is really, really offputting.
The play itself is fairly straightforward, if a little contrived. Lennox Greaves is instantly likeable as the disenchanted Captain Colley, although why he suddenly places an inordinate amount of trust in Bernice is a mystery. A polar opposite is General Brennan, who spends much of the play ranting and raving about ‘not trusting’ Bernice before finally opening up at the end.
In fact much of the story revolves around characters not trusting each other, and between the opening scene setting and the point when answers start to arrive most of the story is driven by Bernice, Captain Colley and the General circling each other suspiciously. Boring…
Fortunately, after this triangle is broken by the release of the General’s mysterious prisoner, answers start to arrive quickly. It’s a tense, emotionally charged situation with a nice symmetry to its ending.
All in all the Secret of Cassandra poses as a diverting, simple adventure for ‘new’ Bernice to sink her teeth into. What I’m not sure about is what she was doing there in the first place… Holiday cruising? Really?
6 / 10