A farce by David McGillvray and Walter Zerlin Jr. It revolves around, as the name suggests, a Townswomen's Guild putting on an amateur dramatic production of a murder mystery, Murder at Checkmate Manor written entirely in-house, by one Mrs. Pheobe Reece, president of said guild.
As one would expect from such a script, character development is atrocious, there is absolutely no capacity for suspension of disbelief, the audience are treated as idiots, and there are far more parts than there are actors available. Add to this the fact that the actors have little or no talent, and one of them is taken ill hours before the show goes on, and you have the recipe for a delicious farce.
The play is in three acts, with a Prologue and an Interlude, where the prima donna Mrs. Reece organises a quiz and bizarre fashion show, including the hall's male cleaner, and a lot of smoke.
The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery is a play for five characters involving no scene changes but many costume changes. It demands a lot from the actors, but is a lot of fun to perform and to watch. It has been performed all over the world and is part of a series of Farndale plays.