"Veronica's Room" by Ira Levin.

Tabs Productions.

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

The third instalment of the 2024 Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season is Ira Levin's "Veronica's Room". Levin also wrote the chilling "Rosemary's Baby".

A middle-aged Irish couple, John and Maureen Mackey, bring a young couple, Susan and Larry, to their Boston home where the Mackeys are caretakers. Susan and Larry have recently begun to date, and the Mackeys approached them at a restaurant due to Susan's resemblance to a dead woman, Veronica. The Mackeys explain that Veronica's elderly, senile sister, Cissie, is now their charge, and Susan agrees to dress up as Veronica in an effort to bring Cissie a sense of closure. The year is 1973, but Cissie believes it to be 1935. Larry and the Mackeys leave Susan alone in Veronica's preserved bedroom to change into a period outfit. But all is not as it first seemed when the Mackeys return to the room.

The groundwork all takes place in the first half of the play, but boy does act two bring some real surprises including TWO quite shocking and disturbing final sections.

The Man is played by Jeremy Lloyd-Thomas, and if it weren't for Jeremy's distinctive voice, you would not realise that it was Jeremy due to the make up and accent; it took me a while, and a quick check of the programme cast list that I believed that it was him.

The Woman is played by Susan Earnshaw. This role is very different to what you'd be used to seeing Susan play, and by the end of the play, you almost feel as breathless as The Woman on stage. It's not often that Susan makes you feel as uneasy as she does in this role, and her facial expressions, especially in the second act, will haunt you!

The Girl is played by Hannah Blaikie, and once again, this role is very different to the others we've seen this season. Hannah makes you smell the fear and panic that her character feels, which starts right at the close of the first act, and then builds throughout act two, culminating into a cataclysmic crescendo that rendered this audience silent and shocked.

The Young Man is played by David Osmond. Like the other characters in this play I'd love to go into greater character detail, but that would completely spoil the play and the storyline. There's a sub plot that concerns David's character that is hinted at in the second act which is really disturbing, and why this production warrants a "15" age restriction.

Directed by Karen Henson, and this is such a fine example of a Director managing to keep you teetering on the edge of your seat, even though I've seen this play a few times previously. I am positive that the end scene is different to ones I've seen in other productions; if not, this version of events made me sit up and take note of the even darker closure to the play.

I have always found an open window with a sudden, and often well timed blast of wind, billowing out a curtain very unnerving, especially at certain parts in a play. This is what we had in Tabs' version of events, and that really brought the hairs on my arm and neck standing to attention. It's almost as if a "spirit" of some kind is either entering or leaving a room, and that works so well here. Again, I can't remember this small detail in any of the other versions I'd seen in the past; maybe it was included but this really stood out for me - you know what I'm like for details and little things that catch your eye. A Director who knows how to create that atmosphere, especially with a thriller, is a Director worth their salt, and Karen is worth a whole salt cellar!

The set design is by John Goodrum, and without anything happening on stage, you automatically get the feel of the era that the story is set, just by taking in the design and props. I know the play and every design is different, and this design gives you an uneasy feeling from the off. What also helps is that the lighting also creates that uneasiness......

Lighting design is by Michael Donoghue, and it's that often dim lighting that makes you feel that this room has something to hide, which indeed it does!

Sound design is by David Gilbrook. For me, it was the silences that are like pockets of unease that create the perfect tension points, but there's always something just a little spooky about the sound of an old fashioned, wind up record player, especially playing a crackly version of "Shuffle Off To Buffalo", that again gets the hackles standing erect. And of course the incidental music is enough to give you the creeps anyway.

Even after seeing the play several times over the years, this particular play gives me the creeps, it has every time I've seen it performed. This is a great sign that the writer, Ira Levin, has captured something very special in his writing. Something that with a good cast, and this is a great cast, can unnerve you, on every occasion of seeing this story. As I said earlier, I didn't remember the very last scene, and this really made this production extra special to me, because I hadn't expected it. And that scene, combined with the actor's visual dramaturgy, the eerie lighting and the ascending music score is unsettling to say the least.

And if you go and see this brilliantly chilling thriller, and you go for something to eat afterwards, don't talk to strangers and accept invitations back to theirs!!!!!

"Veronica's Room" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 24 August.

Photos thanks to Whitefoot Photography.