“All About Murder” by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner

Nottingham Theatre Royal

It seems an absolute age since I last saw anything from Tabs Productions in their Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season, and it is so good to have them back, even socially distanced.

Two successful thriller writers, Nigel Forbes (David Callister) and Maxine Goodman (Susan Earnshaw) are struggling for inspiration, and their financial resources are rapidly dwindling. Desperately searching for a new idea, they decide to first imagine a victim and then fit the mystery plot around their dead body. “We need a victim the audience would cheerfully hate,”………. enter Nigel's lush of a wife Anne (Susie Hawthorne).

The penny drops quite soon when we see Nigel's very leggy secretary Jill Prentice (Anna Mitchum) as to what the story is going to unfold and throw in Detective Inspector Berry (Jeremy Lloyd Thomas), who is a massive thriller fan and also ex am drammer and the comedy touch paper is well and truly lit!

This is typical Tabs Productions with comedy laced into what would have been quite a dark piece of theatre otherwise. Combined with some clever twists this ends up being a killer comedy with an ending that didn't come as a massive surprise, but was extremely enjoyable getting there.

I could have guessed that Andrew Ryan had some involvement in this particular thriller, mainly due to the comic side of the show, and I was correct as Andrew did a fantastic job as the Director of the play.

The set is, as expected, wonderfully designed by Sarah Wynne Kordas, assisted by Duncan Hands. With all the action taking place in Nigel's study there are no scene changes to complicate anything, and any re setting was done in their usual smooth and simplistic method of bringing the curtain down and dimming the lights. Everything in this play is simplistic, well from a viewer's point of view, and that is what makes "All About Murder" such an easy and enjoyable watch. A lovely opening to another Classic Thriller Season.

One thing that I always know is going to be absolutely spot on with Tabs Productions are the lighting (Michael Donoghue) and the smooth sound design (David Gilbrook)

The writing is very detailed and clever, again expected from these two playwright legends of the thriller genre.

Welcome back Tabs, we have all missed you and can't wait for the upcoming three weeks of being thrilled.

“All About Murder” is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday June 26th