"Father Brown-The Curse Of The Invisible Man"
Tabs Productions
Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Set in 1906 and centred around five knives, but what is so special about these knives that would turn someone into a murderer? And why did no-one see anyone suspicious come and go and commit the murder at Ella Hope's studio? Could the murderer really be invisible? Or is the culprit right under everyone's nose?

Based on the classic mysteries by G K Chesterton, John Goodrum, who not only plays the part of Angus Turnbull, co directs the play with David Gilbrook and designed the setting and the lighting with Michael O'Donoghue but put the piece together as well.

The first act took the time to reel you in with the background of the knives and the history of the characters and built up to the murder, and even that wasn't quite what it first appeared either, as we discover in Act Two.

It wasn't until mid way through Act Two that i worked out which character was the murderer but even then, the story behind the character had an interesting twist. So don't think that just because you've worked out who it was, the story ends there!

Anna Mitcham (Anna Hope), Karen Henson (Diana Hope), John Goodrum (Angus Turnbull), David Gilbrook (James Welkin) and John Lyons (Father Brown) were hypnotic throughout with John particularly enigmatic as the cassocked crime crusader, Father Brown.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like the little details of a play, which shows the work and accuracy that the production company put in, and I must mention the sound effects in this play. The silence and level of concentration from the audience heightened the noticability of the sound effects which were incredibly well timed and accurate for the play and blurred the edges of a glossy TV presentation and a theatrical performance. The sound effects, although never intrusive, really created that certain atmosphere in this play.

Another marvelous choice from Tabs Productions which held the audience in the palms of the actors hands from start to finish.

"Father Brown and The Curse Of the Invisible Man" is definitely one to be seen all this week, up to Saturday 13 August 2016, and is the penultimate play in this 29th year of the Colin McIntyre's Classic Thriller Season 2016.