"Father Brown - A Crime At Christmas" by John Goodrum based on the GK Chesterton stories.

Tabs Productions

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

The second play in the annual Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season is another Father Brown tale starring Mr John Lyons in the title role. Not so much a "thriller" as a mystery whodunnit.

The scene is set in Mrs Adam's home in London around the early 1930's. Three priceless diamonds, who were gifted to Ruby by her very rich Godfather, disappear mysteriously in the midst of a pantomime at a festive house party, Father Brown, one of the guests, is on hand to try to unmask the culprit. Is the thief one of the guests? And who is the unexpected guest who arrives at the door halfway through the charade? Could he be involved or is he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? If anyone can unravel this mystery, then Father Brown, the cassocked conundrum crusher can!

John Lyons is Father Brown. The play starts with Father Brown alone on stage to set the scene, acting partly as narrator at various stages throughout. By watching Father Brown, you see his reactions to various snippets of information drip fed by the other characters; but will any of his reactions help solve the mystery? John Lyons is as smooth and unruffled throughout, the ultimate professional, of course not forgetting that this isn't the first, or second time that he has played this man of the cloth.

Lara Lemon plays Ruby Adams. This role is the opposite of last week's role with Ruby being quite an excitable character, very much of the time, almost debutante-esque. Her energy is lovely to behold, as is her adoration for John, the neighbouring boyfriend.

David Osmond plays Ruby's boyfriend, a socialist and pianist called John Crook - great name for a character in a mystery play involving the theft of diamonds - is this a hint or just a red herring? Not only do we get to see more, only slightly over the top acting, but we get to hear David's piano skills as well. A fun character, but surely he wouldn't steal from his girlfriend, would he?

Jeremy Lloyd Thomas plays Sir Leopold Fischer, Ruby's Godfather. This character really stood out for me, and not only for the "bah humbug" style and Fischer's wonderful grumpiness, but for the amazing costume he wears. The style straight away denotes the time period with the top hat, scarves and layers of clothing; quintessentially classic. I almost even bought into the idea that was mentioned regarding the diamonds' disappearance and Sir Leopold. Jeremy is one of those classic actors who you know will deliver time and time again with style.

Susan Earnshaw plays Ruby's mother, and the widow of Colonel Adams, Mrs Adams. Now, here is a completely different character from last week, more serious, and it's nice to see that contrast. That said there were some very nice comic moments, especially with the pantomime scene.

John Goodrum is James Blount, Mrs Adams brother-in-law from Canada. He has descended on the family at Christmas because they have never met before, so thought it time to acquaint himself with everyone. His idea to stage the pantomime to liven up the Christmas celebrations, and invite his friend Florian to join in the pantomime, is met with gusto by most of the assembled family, apart from one!

Juliette Strobel, who in last week's thriller played Ethel, a maid, this week plays Maisie, a maid to Mrs Adams. Again, a slightly different role from last week, where the comedy was prominent. This maid was more of what you'd expect from a maid in service, but in the absence of a butler, could it be the maid that done it? After all, she was in charge of Fischer's various items of clothing!

Pavan Maru plays Florian, who is a renowned French acrobat and comedy actor. Only a small role in this play as the policeman, as requested by Blount, because after all, Florian being a comedy actor, he had access to the best costumiers up and down the country, so making an appearance as a policeman is no big deal. His time spent in the story is quick, especially with his acrobatic exit. Pavan looks so much younger in this role in comparison to his role from last week, and that is partly due to the costumes he wore last week, and the facial hair from last week gone.

Karen Henson directs this mystery. It is fast and furious, almost as if any clues that may be shown, had to be moved on as fast as possible, so as not to be detected. OK, it may not be an out and out thriller; it shows the variety and versatility of Tabs. There is normally one of the four plays where the comedy is uppermost, and this is the one for this year. And in one way the comedy also hides the real one wot dunnit! Anyone who has seen any amount of productions directed by Karen will see what a brilliant Director she is and what a varied Director she is.

John Goodrum, not only wrote this and acts in it, but also designed the set. The writing is slick and funny, and it's not an easy task to write something as fast and funny, and keep to the G K Chesterton standard, but John has done it. He is no stranger to writing for the stage, and knows his craft when writing for actors that he has worked with, to get the maximum impact from his words.

The set design is simplistic in that it doubles as the outside as well as the inside of the house, with just the doors, massive as they are, showing the portal as the exit and entrance points; the audience appreciated this point, confirming the fact with pleasant realisation. Apart from the static piano, the props were brought on and taken off by cast members. Conal Walsh's input in the design of the set also has to be noted.

Michael Donaghue's Lighting Design created the magic of Christmas, especially the way they reflected on the windows, making them seem alive with Christmas lights. The arrival of Sir Leopold Fischer's car was excellently done by making us imagine the car, just by headlights alone.

The Sound Design is by David Gilbrook. What I love about David's design in this area, is that everything is naturally sounding; you expect to hear whatever sound effect at the time that you should be hearing it. It's never obtrusive and is always timed to perfection and sound distance is always observed. As I say, a very natural sound design.

What I will also say is that nobody on stage had need of microphones, or any amplification, because they all know how to project at just the right level. It's not many theatre companies can perform to this aural standard. Something that should be appreciated in a theatre the size of the Nottingham Theatre Royal.

The costumes have been designed by Geoff Gilder and this area is where we really get the feel for the time the play is set in. With pantomime being a key aspect, especially in the1930's, the costumes are wonderfully colourful. Loved the pajama suit that Crook wears which contrasts perfectly with the class attire of Fischer's. Ruby's pantomime outfit also gave rise for several comedy moments, possibly unintentionally.

I did hear murmuring that this shouldn't class as a "thriller" conventionally, and that it was a little out of place with it being set at Christmas, but I spotted three channels on TV that now are only showing Christmas films. Anyway, the Classic Thriller Season isn't here at Christmas, and I was thrilled with this production, so it ticks the box for me. Look on this show as an early Christmas present to yourself. And like a Christmas present, the layers are revealed to eventually reveal the answer to the mystery inside.

"Father Brown - A Crime At Christmas" will be at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 12 August.

 "The BFG (Big Friendly Giant)" by Roald Dahl and adapted by David Wood.

Nottingham Arts Theatre Summer School.

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

All this week at the Nottingham Arts Theatre Summer School, these children have been learning everything needed to produce the one night only performance of "The BFG"; learning the script and everything else required to produce this end of the week show.

I'll freely admit that I have not seen "BFG" on stage, I have not read Dahl's book "BFG" and I've never seen the film "BFG", so this is my first experience of "BFG", and I loved it. And what I didn't know was that the "BFG" was actually seven stories, written by Dahl, and mashed together to make this very enjoyable adventure.

The BFG and orphan Sophie team up to save the children of England from the child-eating giants Bloodbottler, Fleshlumpeater, Bonecruncher, Meatdripper, Childchewer and Gizzardgulper. They are assisted by the Queen of England and the Heads of the Army and Airforce.

To set the scene of the Sophie snatch, Fergus Hillery, Emily Gretton, Hugo Corbett, Isabelle Bett, Bethan Styles, Violet Boyd, Jude Afzal and Seren Whistance demonstrated and described the scene.

Sophie, which takes two forms. to start with is a doll when she is captured by the BFG, but is voiced by, and later played by Zilpha Chisholm. Both doll figure and real life Sophie are dressed in a white nightgown, just to make sure that we make the connection.

The Big Friendly Giant (BFG) is played superbly by Daisy Hillery, and I do not know how she managed to remember the script so splendiferously, because anyone who knows the story, or seen the film, will know that it's on a par with "Trainspotting" the book by Irvine Welsh with the gobbledook language.

You could tell that these young actors were having a ball playing the giants, with some actors sharing the roles for different scenes.

Gizzardgulper was played by Frank Chisholm and Amelie Adams.

Childchewer was played by Mack Afzal and Edie McKenzie.

Meatdripper was played by Dylan Whistance and Violet Boyd.

Bonecruncher was played by Amelie Adams.

Fleshlumpeater was played by Olwyn Jones, Dylan Whistance and Bethan Sykes.

Bloodbottler was played by Edie McKenzie and Mack Afzal.

Butcherboy was played by Thomas Martin.

In the Dream Catching and Dream Watching Scenes, dad was played by Thomas Martin, Sam was played by Fergus Hillery and the schoolchildren were played by Seren Whistance, Jude Afzal and Hugo Corbett. Mrs Plumridge, the school teacher was played by Emily Gretton, and the Headmaster was played by Frank Chisholm.

The BFG and Sophie came up with the solution that the only way to stop the other giants eating all of the world's children was to get the Queen of England to do something about it by getting the army and the airforce involved.

The Queen Of England is played royally by Isabelle Bett. I loved the telephone conversation that she has with the Queen Of Sweden, played by Olwyn Jones, regarding the other giants eating the Swedish children, especially the giants who like a bit of Swede and Sour! Both accents were brilliant.

Mary, the Queen of England's maid, was played regally by Edie McKenzie.

Mr Tibbs, who also worked for The Queen of England, was played by Seren Whistance.

Head of The Army was played by Jude Afzal and Head Of The Airforce by Thomas Martin. Again, I loved their clipped British accents and, along with Jude's eye-rolling scene, brought smiles to my face in abundance.

There was a really clever way that the stage and the orchestra pit was used to demonstrate the pilots and winchers picking up the other giants, and keeping everything in proportion. And again, even more roles played by Jude Afzal, Fergus Hillery and Thomas Martin as the helicopter pilots and Mack Afzal, Frank Chisholm and Hugo Corbett as the winchers.

Learning one part in a week would do my head in, but when many of these young stars are learning several parts in just a week shows just how good this lot are, and I think I only noticed one prompt throughout, which is amazing.

Of course, it's not just the young cast who are amazing, so are the people on the other side of the curtain, who I know have put in twelve hour shifts every day to make sure that what we saw was a success, and to make the cast's experience such a great, and memorable one.

Marie Rogers (Director and Props), Oliver Read (Lighting), George Wilson (Sound), Selena and Yara Johns-Ramos (Stage Managers) and Mary Lobley (Prompt), and guess what? They get to do it all over again next week!

Apart from the sheer entertainment value as an audience member, I love to future star spot, and there were several young actors from the show that really threw themselves into it. And there is always one who catches your eye every single time. By the end of Act One, I was asking about one of the giants who, even when there was no script, just really got under the skin of the giant with their look, their facial acting, their sound and most of all their energy and character portrayal of just being a giant, as well as their script delivery. I had a feeling that I had seen them somewhere before. I found out, after all of the certificates and sweets had been presented, that Dylan Whistance had been in "Oliver" at the Arts Theatre previously. He's a star in a whole constellation of bright stars.

Next week's Summer School production is "We Love The Musicals" which will be performed on Friday 11 August.

 "Love From A Stranger" by Tabs Productions

The Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season 2023.

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Written by Agatha Christie and adapted for the stage by Frank Vosper, this is one of Christie's lesser known and performed works.

Cecily Harrington has led a staid and proper existence. After winning a large amount of money in a sweepstake she desperately yearns for a life of adventure. Enter Bruce Lovell, a handsome and charming stranger who sweeps her off her feet after coming to view the flat that she has put up to rent. In a whirlwind romance, she recklessly abandons her job, friends and fiancé to settle in the remote and blissful surroundings of a country cottage with Lovell. However, her newfound “love from a stranger” is not what it seems and in an astonishingly tense final scene, Cecily discovers the grisly truth about her new love.

This is one of those stories where you think you know what is going to happen and to whom, or maybe one of the other characters in the play returns to the house just in time to save the day. There are several characters who could have the opportunity to do this, but which one might it be. Any Agatha Christie fan knows that her stories always have at least one or two twists in, but this is one such play where I can honestly say that I did not expect this outcome!

Bruce Lovell is a charming, good looking, rich young man who takes the opportunity to charm Cecily when he spots her weakness. Played by David Osmond, he ropes you in until little things in the character seem to jarr, but what could it be? Good to see David back in the cast.

Cecily Harrington, played by Lara Lemon, is high class, just like Lara and you've got to love the clipped accent. She is the devoted little wife who dotes on her husband, even going as far as arranging for the doctor to keep a check on Lovett when his illness starts to show.

Mavis Wilson, played by Kia Pope, is Cecily's best friend, but their friendship is slightly tainted when Cecily dumps her fiancé, Nigel, and on a whim takes up with Lovett. Thankfully, Mavis is invited to Cecily and Bruce's new out of the way home in the country and the two best friends reconnect, just before Cecily and Bruce are due to go away.

Nigel Lawrence, the fiancé, is played by Pavan Maru. This is the first Thriller Season for this Leicester lad, and fits in well within the tight cast.

Hodgson, the gardener is just one of a few characters that add comedy to play, as well as inadvertently providing a major clue. Played by Sarah Wynne Kordas, I had to look several times because with the wig, costume and that accent, Sarah is almost unrecognisable. I've said this previously with her roles, and is one of a few actors who can be classed as chameleonic as she blends in anywhere without be recognised.

Ethel, the niece of Hodgson, is another wonderful comedy character. Ethel reminded me slightly of Alice Horton from The Vicar Of Dibley; the slightly loopy, always trying to please character. A brilliant role for Juliette Strobel.

Dr. Gribble is played by Jeremy Lloyd Thomas. Brought in to check the health of Lovette by Cecily, after Lovette's health started to become a worry to his wife. Gribble and Lovette have a shared passion in the books that they both read, and they also say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but for who?

Louise Garrard, Aunty Lou, is played by the formidable Susan Earnshaw. This is the sort of Aunty you want around. She is like a gentle hurricane blowing through your life. A brilliant comedy character, played by a brilliant comedy character actor in Susan.

Directed by Karen Henson, and I have probably said this before as well, but what Karen does not know about directing a successful play just isn't worth knowing. The pace, and there are several places where the silent gaps say so much about the action, the timing of the comedy and the natural feel of the dialogue and action is impeccable.

What I also noticed and loved was that as the play progressed in the second act, was that very gradually the set got darker, like an approaching menace was surrounding the room. What a clever way of creating atmosphere without it being too obvious.

One thing that I always know is going to be epic is the set design. In this play you almost get two completely different sets for the price of one. There is the flat where Cecily first meets Lovell, and then in the second act, a gorgeous country house. Sarah Wynne Kordas' set design is spectacularly good.

Michael Donoghue's Lighting Design comes into its' own, as I mentioned, midway through act two as the tension sets in and the story unpeels like an onion.

Another area that Tabs Productions excel in is that of Sound Design. Everything is timed to perfection as well as sound distancing, making you believe that the dog, barking it's head off through the French window style doors, is actually half way down the garden; or that car drawing up is actually approaching, or the telephone to your right is actually ringing. David Gilbrook's Sound Design is a work of aural art.

The film of the play of the book was done in 1937 I believe, which means that the costumes are also appropriate. Extremely classy and also depicting the class separation between the upstairs and downstairs characters. Geoff Gilder is the man behind the costume designs.

The Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season is now into it's 35th year, and you don't get to reach any milestone without being successful at what you do. This in itself is proof of the quality of workmanship from Tabs Productions. I always look forward to this time of year when the Thriller Season is back in Nottingham because I know that I am guaranteed the best in everything, and a story that gets your mind working overtime trying to work out who did what and to whom, before the inevitable deed is done.

The first of the four Classic Thrillers at the Nottingham Theatre Royal closes on Saturday 5 August.

Next week's Thriller is "Father Brown - A Crime At Christmas"

 "35mm: A Musical Exhibition" by Ryan Scott Oliver

Musicality: University Of Nottingham's Musical Theatre Society.

Djanogly Recital Hall.

I was invited along to the dress rehearsal of this production before its' destination at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023. Knowing absolutely nothing about the show, I didn't even know the title until I reached the venue, so absolutely everything about this musical was completely new to me.

The music and lyrics are by Ryan Scott Oliver and it's based on a series of photographs by Matthew Murphy. This nugget of information explained a lot of the production and made perfect sense afterwards.

The photographs used were a mish mash of wonderful art as well as quite odd photographs, each depicting self expression of the artist and giving a visual depiction of the song that accompanied that particular section. This in turn creates a visual and aural snapshot.

The photos, the music and the actors bring to life various scenarios of life, religion, death, a possibly evil doll, vampires and even a touching love story between a writer and his muse. All the while asking the viewer to just stop, smell the roses and focus on life. Something we should all take time to do.

There are five cast members; none have been given names, instead recognised as voice one through five, with solos, duets, trios and full cast pieces and is sung through. The five cast members are Joseph Straw, Riley Halls Backler, Bella Crowne, Ewan Waddell and Evie Mace.

The music in this show is stunning to say the least. There's a gorgeous acapella piece and a heavenly piece that sounds like it should have come straight from a church; the choral atmosphere produced gave me tingles. You get the full range of vocals to match the wide range needed for this show.

I've seen Ewan in several productions for Musicality, but I've not heard his vocals as powerful and as soaring as this afternoon. That can also be said of Bella, who not only looked like an operatic diva but sang like one.

One particular highlight for me, and one that lightened the mood was a song called "Caralee" sung by Riley; one of those songs that you really have to listen to the lyrics to get the full incite as to what the story was about. It's also one that Riley could really inject some drama into, as well as comedy.

Evie has such a tender voice that at times it was difficult to hear her, I was though sat about half way back in the large Recital Hall at Djanogly. the venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is a smaller one altogether, so I don't think the audience there will have any trouble hearing her.

Another performer that I've seen in several productions, so knew his calibre is Joseph Straw. It's strange that when you see any actor in a musical, you seem to focus more on the performance but, in a show like this, which is sung through, you get to focus entirely on the vocals, and that is why I really noticed Joseph's tone and control. And this applies to all five in this show, when you focus on just one thing, like a voice, you really hear the tone, the power and the feel of the vocalist.

Sometimes, in musicals, you can focus on the whole performance and miss out on a lot of vocal capability. This show makes you focus on vocal ability, and you get to really appreciate what good vocalists they all are, because their are no distractions. Joe, Riley, Bella, Ewan and Evie all showcased their vocal strengths, especially in the "Transition" sections and the beautifully arranged "Mama Let Me In". Some of the other tracks that really stood out for me were "The Ballad Of Sara Berry", "Good Lady", "Cut You A Piece" and "Make Me Happy"

Directed by Emily Lord. I can only imagine that this show was not the easiest to direct, it's definitely not one of the most well known; I'd never heard of this until this afternoon. But it was smooth, and having all performers on the stage, sitting when not needed in any scenes I am sure helped with entrances and exits. While being ever present though, they were no distraction to the viewer of the person centre stage. The show flows well, which makes it sound like a concept album from days of yore - ask your parents. You could close your eyes and just let it all flow over you. Lovely fluid direction from Emily.

Produced by Emily Trappen, assisted by Ifi Tsolaki. The production values for this show may visually look minimal but simplicity often gets the better reaction. That's not to say that hard work and many hours work have not gone into this area of the production.

Kat Beck is the Musical Director and AJ Hill provided the musical accompaniment. I believe that AJ stepped in at the last moment, and while the excellence that was seen this afternoon took just four weeks, AJ had short of that timescale to make it sound as if he had known this musical score a lot longer.

The show is thought provoking and different, it's an intelligent production that should sell really well on The Fringe when the cast and crew travel up to Edinburgh later this week. It's a production that I would definitely look forward to seeing again.