This is the opening night of the fourth and final instalment of The Colin McIntyre classic thriller season at the Theatre Royal. This being a thriller it is difficult as to wet your appetite without giving anything away. I must say how much I enjoyed the performances of the minimal cast as we are taken through twists and turns over the two acts.
There was a large mix of ages in the crowd and Gray’s script swung the mood of the audience from raucous laughter to shocked gasps and the more than infrequent jolts from your seat (thank you to the lady sat next to me for the accidental elbow to my side after one such jolt).
It is a pleasure to see a thriller at a theatre as due to the nature of the piece, the tension has to be built in the immediate experience as it happens unlike film that has a hundred takes that are then chopped and changed with added cgi to whatever’s coming at you. It is far more refreshing seeing the performers interact and add worry and interest to the audiences experience in a much more alive and organic way. This becomes even more prevalent in the second act as I hear faint whispers of audience theories of ‘whodunit’.
So to end without giving much away a quote found in the program:
“If you like this play tell your friends
But please don’t tell them how it ends”.
Well friends, Stage Struck runs until the 29th August.
Review by Adam Willis
