"Night Must Fall" by Emelyn Williams

Tabs Productions at Nottingham Theatre Royal.

This thriller dates all the way back to 1935 when it was written by Emelyn Williams and concludes Tabs Productions run of the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season 2022.

When Mrs. Bramson learns that her young maid Dora is pregnant, she summons the child's presumed father to her bungalow. The young man, Dan, is charming but mysterious.

Could he be responsible for the recent murder and beheading of a local woman, and could Mrs. Bramson be his next victim? Skilfully, Dan insinuates himself into Mrs. Bramson's affections and attempts to seduce her sceptical niece, Olivia. Despite strong suspicions of Dan's diabolical intentions, Olivia finds herself attracted to, and fascinated by, the young man.

I'm never any good at guessing who done the dastardly deed normally, but this thriller lays it all on a silver serving platter for you. What is interesting though is watching the gradual layer-peeling of the killer.

John Goodrum (Lord Chief Justice) creates the atmosphere at the start of this play with his opening speech. Even though John is not seen, his vocal acting talents send a shiver through the old bones!

Karen Henson (Mrs Bramson) has a slight air of "Nan" from the Catherine Tate Show, crossed with Downton Abbey's Dowager. Wonderfully bossy, unafraid to show who's in charge but with that naughty sense of humour. Mrs Bramson is completely taken in by Dan and performs a complete U turn of opinion thanks to Dan's Welsh charm.

Sarah Wynne Kordas (Olivia Grayne) had me flip flopping as to whether Olivia was actually involved with the murder, and even at the end of the play there could have been a possibility, or is that just me? Wonderfully cool towards Dan but was she just swept along with that charm herself?

Andrew Ryan (Hubert Laurie) gets to look very different from the last thriller, thanks to a hairpiece which, as in the past, always completely changes his character acting. Hubert is trying his hardest to woo Olivia into marriage, but what is the real reason that she turns Hubert down? Am I reading too much into this Olivia character?

Susan Earnshaw (Mrs Terence) plays another servile character, which Susan always does so very well. Mrs Terence gets some wonderfully dry comic lines to deliver.

Juliette Strobel (Dora Parkoe) morphs again from last week's troubled teenager Pippa, into the young maid Dora, who encountered Dan and ended up in the family way, and is the reason to Dan's introduction to the household. Juliette really is quite chameleonic in her roles, and as always great fun to watch on stage.

Jeremy Lloyd Thomas (Inspector Belsize) appears at the start and then at the end, in the way that all good detectives do in these kind of plays, but as ever, the Inspector always gets his man.

David Osmond (Dan) gets to show off a full gamut of emotions; comedy, cheekiness, caring through to manic anger with a possible personality disorder, bordering on bipolar, with just a touch of narcissism thrown in for good measure. There is a scene in Act Two where Dan enters an empty stage and the whole atmosphere seems to change, which gave me goosebumps. His change of

moods at first came as quite a shock and was unnerving. The thriller is driven completely by this baby-faced character. Last week David was hardly on stage, this week he is very rarely off stage, and also gives us a chance to hear another accent as opposed to the RP of last week.

Directed by John Goodrum, and like Karen, knows exactly what to do to create the required feeling for a play like this. Lulled by comedy and then chilled by just a slight staccato of music and a dimming of the lights. What these two don't know about direction of thrillers is not worth knowing.

Designed by Matt Sykes-Hooban, the set has one door short of a farce without counting the double entrance and exit points past the exit door. What I love about all of the Classic Thriller sets is the attention to detail and just moving your vision from left to right, nothing has been missed to replicate the perfect setting for the period and style of the play.

The Lighting Design by Michael Donoghue and Sound Design by David Gilbrook yet again enhances the look and feel of the Thriller genre, especially with that staccato violin to build the tension and the gradual dimming of the lighting showing the ebbing of daylight and bringing on the required feeling of creeping menace.

The Costume Design is by Geoff Gilder and really places the play in the 1920s, if I am not mistaken. Extreme class.

Tabs Productions have yet again brought with them three different thriller genres for this season, and revealed that next year they return to the four play format, so we get back to pre 2020 with four weeks of excellent thrills, chills and mirth making fun. And already, I am missing them and can't wait to discover what the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season delivers.

"Night Must Fall" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 13 August.