Audiences will try to solve four new mysteries when the “chilling but thrilling” Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season returns to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham.
The season has run at the city-centre venue since 1988. A cast will perform as a repertory company as they present a four-week season of psychologic thrillers, detective mysteries and classic whodunnits.
Karen Henson of Tabs Productions, co-producer for the season, said, “we're all so excited to be back at the Theatre Royal for four whole weeks. As a company, it’s our honour and privilege to revisit the resplendent Theatre Royal each summer. We do hope audiences will enjoy these four wonderfully entertaining plays and also help us celebrate the Classic Thriller Season’s 35th birthday.”
The cast features Susan Earnshaw, John Goodrum. Karen Henson, Sarah Wynne Kordas, Lara Lemon, John Lyons, Pavan Maru, David Osmond, Kia Pope, Juliette Strobel and Jeremy Lloyd Thomas.
The season begins with the Agatha Christie and Frank Vosper story Love From a Stranger with Lara Lemon and David Osmond taking the lead roles. It will run from Tuesday 1 until Saturday 5 August.
A new production takes over in week two, John Goodrum’s Father Brown—A Crime at Christmas, based on the mysteries of G K Chesterton. Three priceless diamonds disappear during a boisterous pantomime at a country manor house. John Lyons, Detective Sergeant George Toolan in the television series A Touch of Frost, will don his cassock as Father Brown. The 79-year-old threatens this is his last season but could it be another red herring? The play will run from Tuesday 8 until Saturday 12 August.
In week three, Brian Clemens's Murderous Liaisons involves 1980s shenanigans on the Costa del Sol. Pavan Maru, new to the Classic Thriller Season, plays Larry, a professional safe-cracker who takes on a gangland jewel thief, Alex. Jeremy Lloyd Thomas, a familiar face and a big favourite with Classic Thriller Season fans, plays Alex. Murderous Liaisons will run from Tuesday 15 until Saturday 19 August.
A first for the Classic Thriller Season is Alan Ayckbourn’s Snake in the Grass. Sarah Wynne Kordas, Karen Henson and Susan Earnshaw play the three lead roles in a tale of blackmail and deceit which has a “macabre final twist”. It will run from Tuesday 22 until Saturday 26 August.