Madness, mystery and murder will abound when the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season returns to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham for its 37th year.
The season begins with Peter Gordon’s Murdered to Death, which features Doctor Who’s Nicholas Briggs as the bumbling Inspector Pratt. It is “an hilarious spoof in the best Agatha Christie tradition, with an assembled cast of characters guaranteed to delight”. Directed by John Goodrum, it will run from Tuesday 6 until Saturday 10 August.
Fatal Encounter takes over from Tuesday 13 until Saturday 17 August. Karen Henson directs this Francis Durbridge play which features Howard, a well-known book publisher, who is concerned for his wife Joanna who has become unusually distressed, nervous and mysterious. When Howard arrives home to find Joanna has shot Perry, a former friend, in a struggle, the story takes a sinister turn.
Henson also directs Ira Levin’s Veronica’s Room, which involves Susan, a young Boston college student, being persuaded to impersonate the dead Veronica. Once she is dressed in Veronica’s clothes, events take a surprising turn of events. It will run from Tuesday 20 until Saturday 24 August.
An Edwardian psychological thriller, The Mysterious Mr Love by Karoline Leach, again directed by Henson, ends the season. It offers “an edge of romance, plenty of conniving, a dose of comedy and sharp suspense” and is “as tense and as twisty as an Argentine tango”. It will run from Tuesday 27 until Saturday 31 August.
The cast for the season is Hannah Blaikie, Sarah Wynne Kordas, Susan Earnshaw, Karen Henson, Juliette Strobel, Kia Pope, Nicholas Briggs, Andrew Ryan, Pavan Maru, David Osmond, Jeremy Lloyd Thomas and John Goodrum.