"The Mysterious Mr Love" by Tabs Productions.

Classic Thriller Season 2024.

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Is this really the final play in this year's Classic Thriller Season? Have the weeks really flown by that fast? Well, yes it really is and yes, they really have!

Set around the turn of the century, 1914 to be exact, the story concerns "Mr Love", a handsome and wily conman who marries women for their money and then runs off with everything they own. His latest victim is Adelaide Pinchin. She is a milliner, who has inherited £50. She appears to be a very vulnerable lady, who has low self esteem and lives with her strict family. Just the sort of woman that Mr Love goes for.

Mr Love charms her, after seeing her through the window of the shop that she works in the back room at, and uses his seductive skills to entice her into a secret marriage within days of their meeting. However, when they are married he puts his usual plans into action, but things don't go exactly as he had envisaged!

Mr Love is played by John Goodrum and Adelaide is played by Sarah Wynne-Kordas in a brilliant example of a two-hander in story telling. You become completely drawn in through the narration from both actors from the start, and when the setting out of the back stories are completed, you then become involved in a story that you really don't know where it leads to.

There's a feeling of cat and mouse going on with the upper hand being flipped by both characters. I was waiting for the twist, but there was no twist. I then got to thinking, with Mr Love's back reputation, he wouldn't fall into line with Adelaide's offer, and did Adelaide really think that she would be the woman to turn Mr Love around? Well, one of the scenarios came true, but which one?

Directed by Karen Henson, who develops the cat and mouse game perfectly. Having not seen this play before, I really did not know which way this little conundrum of a play was going to work out. The characters are polar opposites and this is also brought out, but again, there are times that you think Adelaide's confidence and George Love's conceding to this new found confidence is going to work out. A wonderful piece of direction and execution of direction all round, to keep the audience really on their toes.

Set design is by Sarah Wynne-Kordas, and we see a very different design with this one. It's stark with Millener's stands providing much of the design layout, but a semi back drop of material, again blending in with the Millenary theme, around a table and two chairs, along with only a few props. Once you've taken this inobtrusive set design in, all you need to do is concentrate on the actors and the story.

Lighting design is by John Goodrum, who ensures that when focus is needed, the decreasing spotlight id firmly on Mr Love, again drawing you into Love's face and features. John is one of those actors who really knows how to change a mood with just a change to his facial acting, and this is, quite literally, highlighted by the lighting design.

This two handed piece of theatre closes this year's Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season, not so much with a bang, but with a sublimely, classy thriller, that will have the tendency to leave you feeling quite tense, so much so that you may need to return home for a de-stressing hot bath, not forgetting the bubbles!

"Mysterious Mr Love" is at the Nottingham theatre Royal until Saturday 31 August.

See you for more thrills in 2025 Tabs.