Murder, Mind Games and Missing Wives as Nottingham’s Classic Thriller Season Returns
Written by Katie Barr
August at the Theatre Royal is about to become rather dangerous.
Nottingham’s long-running Classic Thriller Season returns this summer with three plays filled with suspicious strangers, murderous plans and the sort of secrets that never stay buried for long.
Running from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 29 August, the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season has been part of the city’s theatrical calendar since 1988. Presented by Tabs Productions in association with Theatre Royal Nottingham, this year’s programme moves from dark comedy to psychological suspense before ending with a mystery where nobody—not even the central character—can be certain what is true.
It begins with sunshine, a Greek island and a plan that is almost certainly going to go wrong.
Anybody for Murder
Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner’s comedy thriller opens the season from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 August.
Max Harrington has decided to murder his wife Janet, collect the life insurance and begin a new life with his girlfriend. It is not a particularly admirable plan, but Max appears confident that he has thought of everything. Motives multiply, alliances shift and seemingly everyone starts considering whether their problems might be solved by somebody else’s untimely death.
Standing inconveniently close to the chaos is Edgar Chambers, a crime writer and neighbour who knows more than most about how murder stories work. With John Goodrum playing Max, Karen Henson as Janet and Jeremy Lloyd Thomas as Edgar, Anybody for Murder brings a lighter opening to the season. It may deal in greed, betrayal and planned homicide, but it does so with a definite sense of mischief.
The Nightmare Room
The mood becomes considerably darker from Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 August with The Nightmare Room, adapted by John Goodrum from a mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Its ingredients are simple: two women, one locked room and a bottle of poison.
Helen regains consciousness to discover that she has been bound and blindfolded. Her captor is Catherine, her best friend, who challenges her to a deadly game supposedly designed to settle which of them will win the man they both desire. But this is not simply a story of romantic rivalry, and the situation inside the room may not be quite what either woman claims it to be. As control moves back and forth, questions begin to form around their relationship, their memories and the real purpose of the game.
Corinne Begluk plays Helen opposite Sarah Wynne Kordas as Catherine in a two-hander that relies on atmosphere, psychological pressure and the growing suspicion that there is far more happening than the audience has been allowed to see.
The Mantrap
The season closes from Tuesday 25 to Saturday 29 August with the premiere of The Mantrap, Sean Aita’s English adaptation of Robert Thomas’s French play Piège pour un homme seul.
Daniel Edwards is staying at a remote Cornish cottage when his wife disappears following an argument. Desperate for answers, he finds himself confronted by a woman who calmly insists that she is the missing wife everyone has been searching for.
There is only one problem: Daniel is certain he has never seen her before.
Pavan Maru and Sarah Wynne Kordas lead the cast as the man and woman at the centre of the mystery, with John Goodrum as the inspector, Susan Earnshaw as Reverend Susan Green and Juliette Strobel as the visitor. It is a premise built to make an audience question every new piece of information. Memories can be unreliable, appearances can be manufactured and the person demanding the truth may not necessarily be telling it.
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Together, the three productions offer different versions of the classic stage thriller. Anybody for Murder finds comedy in a growing collection of terrible plans; The Nightmare Room strips the action down to two people fighting for control; and The Mantrap turns identity itself into the mystery.
The returning company also gives the season its repertory character, with several performers appearing in more than one production. Audiences can watch familiar faces move between victims, suspects, investigators and possible murderers as each new story takes over the Theatre Royal stage.
For regular visitors, the season marks the return of a Nottingham summer tradition. For newcomers, it offers three separate chances to sit in the dark, examine the evidence and become completely convinced that they have solved everything—just before the next twist arrives.
Anybody for Murder: Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 August
The Nightmare Room: Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 August
The Mantrap: Tuesday 25 to Saturday 29 August
The age guidance is 12+, with anyone under 14 required to attend with an adult aged 18 or over. Individual tickets and discounted packages covering all three plays are available through the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall box office.
All content is original to The Literary Lounge.
In-article images provided by Nottingham Theatre Royal and Concert Hall. No changes were made to these images.
Featured Image provided by Nottingham Theatre Royal.
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