"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebolo, adapted by Bryony Lavery.

Encore Performing Arts.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire theatre goers have been blessed with some fantastic productions just recently, and here is another incredible play.

Next year Encore celebrate a decade of producing excellent productions, both musical and straight plays. I have also been lucky enough to have been there from day one to review them.

This is a play that isn't performed often, which is what makes this production so special. It's also a very technical piece of theatre which is not your run of the mill murder play because you know from the start who the killer is, but the end of the play, albeit being a happy one, is left quite open ended. There are so many things that I could write, plot wise, but I would not wish to provide any spoilers regarding the flow of events, so I won't.

Susie Salmon is just like any other young girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on Ray, a boy from school. There's one big difference though – Susie is dead.

She can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Her father Jack is obsessed with identifying the killer. Her mother Abigail is desperate to create a different life for herself. And her sister Lindsey is discovering the opposite sex with experiences that Susie will never know. Susie is desperate to help them, and try to bring her murderer to justice, and there might be a way of reaching them…

Susie Salmon is played by Daisy Donoghue, who is on stage for practically the whole run time. There's a lot of script and a lot of emotional characterisation and Daisy smashes everything to do with this role; a role that is very different to any role that I have seen Daisy perform over the years.

Buckley Salmon, Susie's younger, and naive brother, is played by Arden Jennison. This man seems to be blessed with eternal young looks, which is bore out in this role. When you think that Susie is fourteen years old when she is killed, and Buckley is the younger sibling, this places him as a pre teen, and Arden still looks age appropriate. 

Daisy Forster plays Lindsey Salmon, Susie's younger sister who finds love in Samuel, and allows Susie to see her family move on in this coming of age drama, except those coming of age are the ones that are left behind. Lindsey is also one of the first ones to feel the heavenly presence of Susie, allowing the net to tighten and evidence to be discovered.

Kheenan Jones plays Jack Salmon, Susie's father. This is a role that is also very different to his other past stage roles. In one way this is a very calming character who is in control. But then as he feels Susie's presence, he twigs as to who is responsible for her death and he becomes a calculated hunter, and not only of the truth! Kheenan is such a flexible actor that he can play practically any role and make the audience believe in them; just look at his award winning portrayal of "The Creature" in Encore's "Frankenstein". I rest my case.

The mother, Abigail Salmon, is played by Emma Collins. Abigail falls slightly short in Susie's eyes as the play progresses but manages to bring it back around by the end. She shows just what the pressure of losing someone dear can do to a person's emotional state with her actions. Emma's consistency in quality performance is upheld in this role.

Laura Davey plays Ruth Connors. This is one of those characters who starts off as being a bit of an oddball, but then by the end becomes a lynchpin to the story. Susie manages to "contact" Ruth from heaven to let her know who her killer is. She also manages to re-connect with Susie's earthly love interest in Ray via the supernatural body invasion - seen quite spectacularly in that scene from "Ghost" where Sam manages to dance and kiss Molly via Oda Mae Brown. 

Harvey Latter plays Samuel Heckler, Lindsey's partner. Samuel and Lindsey mature together and allows Susie to have hope for her family on earth, via her younger sister. Harvey has had an incredibly busy couple of years and has played a variety of different roles, showing his flexibility in character roles.

Amy Parker plays Franny, the other non-living character in the play and acts as Susie's counsellor up in Heaven. We get some of the comedy from Franny as she constantly reminds Susie that she is no longer alive and tries to reign in Susie's actions.

Payash Raslan plays Ruana Singh, Ray's over protective mother, who likes to smoke and is not afraid to talk back to authoritarian figures. This is Payash's debut with Encore and a very confident start as well, what hopefully will be a continuing succession of parts with the group. This may be her debut for Encore but I remember Payash from local stages in Nottingham's Lace Market and Nottingham Arts Theatres.

Ray Singh is played by Shantanu Bhumbra, another actor who is rapidly developing an extensive theatrical CV - you may not recognise him with his clothes on in this production, after being in "The Full Monty" earlier this year in Nottingham. This is his second production for Encore following on from playing Akhtar in Encore's recent production of "The History Boys".

Detective Len Fenerman is played by Jack Readyhoof. Now, in the past I have said that Jack has played some wonderfully unhinged characters on stage, well this is completely different as the sensible Detective who gravitates to Abigail Salmon romantically, after we find out about Fenerman's late wife. Mush as I love Jack's unhinged and manic characters, it's also really good to see him play roles such as this. Jack also plays Principal Caden in the play.

Guy Evans, who makes his debut for Encore, plays George Harvey, the neighbour who likes to make dolls' houses. Another talented actor who I've reviewed in Lace Market Theatre productions in Nottingham.  What really impressed me, apart from being a really convincing and unhinged maniac, is the way that he made me feel the weight that was in the bags he was unloading at the start of this play. I don't know if those bags were weighted or if they weren't, but Guy made it look as if they were all really heavy, and you could feel the energy that was needed to move the bags.

Grandma Lynn is played by Mina Holtom. I've known Mina for a few years now, but with just a little help by wigs and make up, Mina was almost unrecognisable as the glam Gran who was not at all bothered by letting her mouth run away with her, which also injected some wonderful splashes of comedy. Mina also doubled up her role by playing Mrs Flanagan.

Charli Twyford, Sky Marsden, Eleanor Carty and Megan Hill provided the heavenly voices for Leah, Flora, Wendy and Leidia.

Providing movement in the puppetry department for the heavenly victims were Shan Bhumbra (Leah), Payash Raslan (Flora), Harvey Latter (Wendy) and Laura Davey (Leidia).

Milly Bould, along with her dad, Chris, created the puppets in the show, including Holiday, the dog. Milly also operated Holiday and provided the "voice" for Holiday, as well as playing Sophie, the cop, and a girl.

Directed by Adam Worton and Natalie Webster, assisted by Robert McAuley. The first few minutes of this play had absolutely no dialogue at all, but they managed to create such tension from what was happening on stage, or just below the stage level that from this opening, I was certainly left moving towards the edge of my seat, which is where I stayed for most of this production. Although there was no rush in the action on stage, the time seemed to disappear; this I put down afterwards being due to that focus and anticipation of what was to come just reeled you in.

The stage direction is unlike most other plays because, while normally the stage characters have to react to all of the actors, in this the actors have to completely ignore Susie, for most of the time and act as if she is not there, which of course she isn't; she's in Heaven after all. Clever Direction is so obvious for this play.

Adam Guest is the Producer as well as Sound Designer. Adam has an uncanny sense of what music fits the feel of a play completely, and the music used in this production really adds to the story, as well as the atmosphere.

Sound operation is by Meg Hill and Arran Mackay. The timing of the sound was spot on. From the crunching of the snow underfoot when Jack Salmon is walking on the snow, to the timing of the script words to the recorded passages from Susie and the Heavenly voices of the "ghosts" of the past victims, nothing was out of place and all cues were hit.

Production design is by Adam Worton. The stage, even though it doesn't immediately look like it, is set on about six different levels, including one below stage level. This works well to place Susie at the top, as if she is looking down on everyone from Heaven, but it also means that you can see all the actors on stage, all of the time due to the staggered levels.

Lighting design and operation is by David Price, and the focusing, and drawing in of the spots to pinpoint several of the characters really works well, as well as creating light pools and shadows, creating even more atmosphere.

Every area in this production met my every expectation, but then again I have been watching Encore productions, as I said earlier since 2015, and I know that everyone involved have high expectations of what they need to produce, and they produce what is expected.

This play has so many things that when put together, create an unforgettable evening. The Heavenly puppets of the victims, although not meant to be scary, create an unnerving effect.

"The Lovely Bones" is at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 21 September.

During the run of "The Lovely Bones", Encore will be raising money for Myeloma UK.