The Classic Thriller Season is a long-running annual summer repertory tradition at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, featuring live stage performances of comedy murder mysteries and psychological thrillers. It's back this month with three plays that will offer your annual quota of puzzles and adrenalin rushes...
Established in 1988 by Colin McIntyre, The Classic Thriller Season remains one of the few weekly rotating repertory theatre seasons left in the UK. When Colin passed away in 2011 at the age of 82, the much-loved summer residency was officially named the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season in his honour. In 2012 the baton for curating the season was picked up by Derbyshire-based TABS Productions, led by producer Karen Henson. This year’s season brings three exciting new performances to the Theatre Royal stage.
Anybody for Murder is a hilarious comedy thriller by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner. The plot centres around Max, who is planning to murder wife Janet, collect her life insurance, and enjoy life with his girlfriend. However, soon his friends Mary and George arrive on their Greek island with news they are beneficiaries of a huge fortune. Plots and plans are hatch, and soon everyone is hell bent on murder. All that stands in their way is the presence of a neighbour who knows a thing or two about murder, the crime writer Edgar Chambers.
Anybody for Murder runs from Tues 11 August to Sat 15 August. Tickets are priced between £19.50 and £34.50.
The Nightmare Room is based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mystery chiller, adapted by John Goodrum. Two women share a locked room with a bottle of poison. When Helen regains consciousness, she finds herself bound and blindfolded in a locked room. Her captor, best friend Catherine, challenges her to a deadly game of Russian roulette to decide which of them will win the handsome film star they both desire. But the game, like the room, is far from what it seems.
The Nightmare Room runs from Tues 18 August to Sat 22 August. Tickets are priced between £19.50 and £34.50.
The Mantrap is twisty thriller that Alfred Hitchcock once planned to make into a film. This is a premiere production of the original play Piège pour un homme seul by Robert Thomas and has been translated into English by Sean Aita. It’s protagonist is Daniel Edwards, who is desperate to find his wife who has gone missing after an argument at their remote Cornish holiday cottage. But when he finds himself confronted by a woman claiming to be her, he’s sure that he’s never seen her before in his life. Is he suffering from amnesia, or is she a fraudster?
The Mantrap runs from Tues 25 to Sat 29 August. Tickets are priced between £19.50 and £34.50.
If you’d like to see all three plays then you can also buy a discounted joint ticket for the whole season for £76.50 (evenings) and £70.50 (matinees).
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