One of the joys of the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season is being able to watch plays in different genres and seeing how actors adapt to widely contrasting roles.
The 2024 season has so far presented audiences with Peter Gordon’s whodunnit parody Murdered to Death and Francis Durbridge’s Fatal Encounter in which a crime is committed early on and the question on everyone’s mind is: will they get away with it?
The third offering in the month-long season is a dark, psychological, disturbing work by Ira Levin, known primarily for Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and Deathtrap. When Veronica’s Room premièred in 1973, the New York Times said, “the play is strong on atmosphere and totally weak in reality”. Fifty years later, in the hands of Tabs Productions, Veronica’s Room has some astonishingly good performances and is one of the most powerful pieces of theatre I’ve seen in a long time.
Set in 1973 in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, the play features a middle-aged Irish couple, referred to in the programme as The Woman and The Man. In a restaurant, they approach The Girl and The Young Man who are on their second date.
The older couple remark that the girl is just like Veronica who is dead and whose elderly, senile sister Cissie is in their care. They persuade the girl to dress up as Veronica so that her arrival will ease Cissie’s suffering in her final days as she is suffering from cancer.
Hannah Blaikie’s first Classic Thriller Season has been quite a success. She gave an enjoyable performance as Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington in Murdered to Death before being impressive as nervy, secretive Joanna Mansfield in Fatal Encounter.
In Veronica’s Room, she gives a captivating display. At the beginning of the play, she is keen to help the older couple despite having reservations about what the pretence might involve. During a scene in which she is alone on stage, she effortlessly holds the audience’s attention. As the couple’s sinister intentions become clear, she evolves into a petrified, disorientated shadow of her former self. She is little short of spellbinding.
Susan Earnshaw, who has been involved with the Classic Thriller Season for the past 16 years, gives one of her most accomplished performances as The Woman. You could almost think she is harmless as a caring Irish woman who tries to do what is right. But at the end, her sanity is questioned as the full extent of her extreme reactions is revealed.
Another stalwart of the season, Jeremy Lloyd Thomas, has a complete range to his talents. After depicting blustering Colonel Charles Craddock in Murdered to Death and devious art dealer Mark Adler in Fatal Encounter, he revels in playing The Man, transforming from a concerned carer into a frighteningly brutal manipulator.
David Osmond also relishes his role as The Young Man, making the most of the character’s alternative aspect. To say any more would give too much away.
Karen Henson, who directs three of the four productions in the 2024 season, gets the most out of her cast. She comes up with a gripping production, which is eerily good throughout. It’s the first time Veronica’s Room has been presented in the thriller season; it should definitely not be the last.