Medusa Deluxe (2023)

Set amongst the cut-throat world of a regional hairdressing contest, this rather thinly spread drama follows the antics of some would-be competitors who gather for their annual jamboree only to find that one of their number has been killed. Scalped, to be precise. As the story develops, we see that there are no shortage of suspects from the great and the good as the scene-stealing "Cleve" (Clare Perkins), "Divine" (Kayla Meikle) and "Kendra" (Harriet Webb) spat, squabble and spar like the best of them. They are all stuck waiting for the police to question them so tensions are only going to increase as they gossip, conspire and also demonstrate some considerably imaginative skills with their hairdos before: enter the partner of the victim. "Angel". At last some semblance of acting from the usually handsome but wooden Luke Pasqualino. Loads of stereotypes, yes, but he actually turns in quite an engaging performance as the camp-as-Christmas, distraught, mincer. Unfortunately, though, this is really just a one act play that has been overstretched into one hundred minutes of screen time, and though it most certainly has it's moments, there are too many extended tracking shots as the camera follows someone, somewhere, around their complex that seemed bigger than the Royal Albert Hall. There's simply too much padding around a story that could have done a little more to develop the personalities more. It is underpinned by some effective black humour - and some of that delivers well and caustically (especially from Perkins) but there's too much of a paucity of that to stop this from feeling rather longer than it is. It looks every a inch a television play, and as such does it's job fine - but I wouldn't say you need to buy a ticket to watch it.