No Classic Thriller Season is properly complete without a Francis Durbridge play. This one, Murder in the Small Hours, is a Durbridge, complete with sofa near stage-centre and drinks table upstage-right.
But this isn't your usual Durbridge. It's a late one; and it's set not in London or the Home Counties but near Chichester; it's more gritty, with a terrorist, a potential hijacker, in it; and nobody calls anybody else "darling", as they invariably do in Durbridge.
It begins on a flight from Australia to England. And the plot involves the possibility of a toy koala bear being used to send drugs or valuables in the luggage of hotelier Carl Houston (Nicholas Briggs). There's also a lot of blackmail and guns.
The late eighties period is well established, partly by Patric Kearns's sound – he also directs – but most enjoyably by Geoff Gilder's outstanding set and costumes. The most outrageous of the latter are worn by Jo Castleton in the otherwise small part of Houston's secretary Ruth. At one point she appears for duty in the shortest of tight black dresses, bright red tights and black shoes with stilettos as high as stilts. It shouldn't be allowed.
There are some super performances all round, most obviously perhaps from Chris Sheridan, as Ronnie Sheldon, John Hester (Westwood) and Karen Henson (Vanessa Houston). Sheridan's scene on the plane with Briggs is beautifully suggestive and enigmatic, as it is when he catches the eye of Castleton; Hester's investigator is, as we might expect, splendidly snoopy and insinuating; and Henson is Houston's wife, Vanessa, straightforward and non-eccentric for a change, not a scratchy pair of tights to be seen.
Jeremy Lloyd Thomas's famous but down-at-heel chef is nicely seedy despite his fame.
This is a treat, in the best traditions of the Thriller Season.
Alan Geary EVENING POST / THIS IS NOTTINGHAM
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Secrets and lies are recipe for top thriller
Take a koala bear, a stolen necklace, a good dose of secrets and lies and a dash of blackmail and you have all the ingredients for the latest thriller at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.
The second in this year’s summer suspense season, Murder In The Small Hours by Francis Durbridge, keeps the audience guessing from start to finish.
The drama opens with a hijacking on a plane from Australia to London which results in hotel owner Carl Houston (Nicholas Briggs) saving the life of fellow passenger Ronnie Sheldon (Chris Sheridan).
However, instead of being treated as a hero, Houston finds himself under suspicion from the police and receiving death threats — why, and from whom, he claims he has no idea.
To say more would spoil the plot but suffice it to say there is intrigue, blackmail, and death before all becomes clear.
The cast members will be familiar faces to those who regularly attend the summer suspense season and, once again, they have come up with a fantastic performance.
Coupled with director Patric Kearns’ excellent use of dramatic music and lighting, they create great tension and suspense throughout.
Briggs is brilliant as the increasingly confused and desperate businessman, playing it perfectly so you never quite know if he is telling the truth and is as innocent as he makes out.
His partnership with Karen Henson, who plays his wife, Vanessa, is great.
Trying to get the truth out of the Houstons is policeman George Westwood, excellently played by John Hester, who has an uncanny knack of turning up at the right time.
Not often on stage, but still playing a great role, was Adrian Lloyd-James as no-nonsense businessman Oliver Radford.
The suspense season has been a fixture on the summer calendar at the Theatre Royal for many years, and long may it remain.
The season continues next week with Frankenstein — SH. NEWARK ADVERTISER
But this isn't your usual Durbridge. It's a late one; and it's set not in London or the Home Counties but near Chichester; it's more gritty, with a terrorist, a potential hijacker, in it; and nobody calls anybody else "darling", as they invariably do in Durbridge.
It begins on a flight from Australia to England. And the plot involves the possibility of a toy koala bear being used to send drugs or valuables in the luggage of hotelier Carl Houston (Nicholas Briggs). There's also a lot of blackmail and guns.
The late eighties period is well established, partly by Patric Kearns's sound – he also directs – but most enjoyably by Geoff Gilder's outstanding set and costumes. The most outrageous of the latter are worn by Jo Castleton in the otherwise small part of Houston's secretary Ruth. At one point she appears for duty in the shortest of tight black dresses, bright red tights and black shoes with stilettos as high as stilts. It shouldn't be allowed.
There are some super performances all round, most obviously perhaps from Chris Sheridan, as Ronnie Sheldon, John Hester (Westwood) and Karen Henson (Vanessa Houston). Sheridan's scene on the plane with Briggs is beautifully suggestive and enigmatic, as it is when he catches the eye of Castleton; Hester's investigator is, as we might expect, splendidly snoopy and insinuating; and Henson is Houston's wife, Vanessa, straightforward and non-eccentric for a change, not a scratchy pair of tights to be seen.
Jeremy Lloyd Thomas's famous but down-at-heel chef is nicely seedy despite his fame.
This is a treat, in the best traditions of the Thriller Season.
Alan Geary EVENING POST / THIS IS NOTTINGHAM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secrets and lies are recipe for top thriller
Take a koala bear, a stolen necklace, a good dose of secrets and lies and a dash of blackmail and you have all the ingredients for the latest thriller at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.
The second in this year’s summer suspense season, Murder In The Small Hours by Francis Durbridge, keeps the audience guessing from start to finish.
The drama opens with a hijacking on a plane from Australia to London which results in hotel owner Carl Houston (Nicholas Briggs) saving the life of fellow passenger Ronnie Sheldon (Chris Sheridan).
However, instead of being treated as a hero, Houston finds himself under suspicion from the police and receiving death threats — why, and from whom, he claims he has no idea.
To say more would spoil the plot but suffice it to say there is intrigue, blackmail, and death before all becomes clear.
The cast members will be familiar faces to those who regularly attend the summer suspense season and, once again, they have come up with a fantastic performance.
Coupled with director Patric Kearns’ excellent use of dramatic music and lighting, they create great tension and suspense throughout.
Briggs is brilliant as the increasingly confused and desperate businessman, playing it perfectly so you never quite know if he is telling the truth and is as innocent as he makes out.
His partnership with Karen Henson, who plays his wife, Vanessa, is great.
Trying to get the truth out of the Houstons is policeman George Westwood, excellently played by John Hester, who has an uncanny knack of turning up at the right time.
Not often on stage, but still playing a great role, was Adrian Lloyd-James as no-nonsense businessman Oliver Radford.
The suspense season has been a fixture on the summer calendar at the Theatre Royal for many years, and long may it remain.
The season continues next week with Frankenstein — SH. NEWARK ADVERTISER