A socially distanced Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season will bring “gripping plots, dark humour and breathless action” to Nottingham’s Theatre Royal in summer 2021.
Karen Henson from Tabs Productions, co-producer for the season, said, “the past year has been a difficult time for everyone but we were delighted to have the chance to stream a digital version of the Victorian chiller The Black Veil onstage for the Theatre Royal’s YouTube channel last July. However, this summer we’re so excited to return to the Theatre Royal to perform in front of a real-life audience.
“The Theatre Royal is a second home for us. We just can’t wait to see everyone again.”
The season starts with the comedy thriller All About Murder by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner. It features two playwrights struggling for inspiration as their financial resources are rapidly dwindling. Desperately searching for a new idea for their next play, they decide to imagine a victim first and then fit the mystery plot around the dead body.
Once they have selected a fictional murder victim, the two writers draw on all their experience to construct a real-life murder. Their best plot in years will have only one performance. All About Murder runs from Tuesday 22 until Saturday 26 June.
This will be followed by John Lyons, best known for playing Detective Sergeant George Toolan in the long-running ITV detective series A Touch of Frost, taking on the role of Father Brown in a new whodunit.
Based on the classic mysteries by G K Chesterton, Father Brown—The Murderer in the Mirror is set in a West End theatre where a famous actor is found dead just before the opening of his latest production. Father Brown, invited to watch the dress rehearsal, sees at once in the shattered dressing room mirror that all is not as it seems. Written by John Goodrum, it runs from 29 June until 3 July.
Kiss of Death by Simon Williams features an actress attending an unusual improvisation workshop and finding herself auditioning to be the bait in a police plot to trap a real-life serial killer. This modern thriller which is “packed with plenty of dark, sardonic humour to punctuate its mood of prevailing menace” runs from 6 until 10 July.
The season ends with The Final Twist by Alfred Bradley and Ken Whitmore, a “murderous and surprising tale where life and art are intertwined”. It runs from 13 until 17 July.