“The Lady Vanishes” by The Classic Thriller Theatre Company
Derby Theatre

When Socialite Iris’ travelling companion, Governess Ms Froy, disappears, she’s bewildered to find fellow passengers deny ever having seen her. Was it that bump on the head before Iris boarded the train make her imagine all of this? With the help of musician Max, she turns detective, and together they resolve to solve this intriguing mystery.

It’s based on the classic Hitchcock film, one that I've not seen, so the story was all new to me, so I didn't know the outcome before tonight.

Gwen Taylor (Ms Froy), Andrew Lancel (Dr Hartz), Nicholas Audsley (Max), Denis Lill (Charters), Scarlet Archer (Iris), Mark Wynter (Eric) and Ben Nealon (Caldicott) are the main cast for this mystery, which reminds me of a Famous Five adventure for grown ups.

It's very jolly hockey sticks, with the fight scenes being over exaggerated, in the mode of the old B Movies. I felt like shouting "Hurrah" and "What What!" several times throughout

Directed by Roy Marsden, I enjoyed the whole feel of the play. It may be a dated piece of theatre, but that in itself is quite refreshing. There were parts that could have used modern technology but I'm really pleased that the staging was kept quite simple.

Designed by Morgan Large, the set was effective and the transformation from station to train to restaurant car and then station again was, once more kept simple with the cast making the set transformation when needed.

Sound Design is by Dan Samson and Lighting design by Charlie Morgan-Jones, both creating the atmospheric noises and lighting effects apt for a train journey.

The play is not a long one, with each act lasting an equal 50 minutes each, so there was no way you could get slightly bored because the pace was rapid and the story build up nice and swift.

My only niggle was that in parts the projection from a couple of the actors was not the strongest. This may also have been because there were sound effects at the same time, but also that I was close to the back so parts were lost. The majority of the actors though were comfortably audible.

Although mainly set in Continental Europe, the play is totally British in its' humour and the marvellously clipped accents and cricket talk. I bet the restaurant car had ginger beer and cucumber sandwiches as well.

“The Lady Vanishes” disappears from the Derby Theatre stage on Saturday 12 October