A thought occurred to me as the interval approached, that this was a comedy that hadn’t quite got the tone right. The heavily tinted dark tone of the gloom laden housekeeper, Mrs Pleasant (Bryony Rawle, standing in for an ill Britt Ekland) – an ironic name if ever there were, had her with one foot permanently camped in the other side. Classic phrases such as, ‘The door between worlds lays loose’, ‘The beast stalks the moors’ and a collector’s scrap book of melodramatic gems, in their shameless attempt to create atmosphere, set the scene for what I had concluded was a comic pastiche struggling for air. But no, a glance at the programme in the interval told me the American playwright, John Willard, had set out, post World War One, to write a thriller – which was, apparently, a huge hit at the time.

This adaption by Carl Grose sets the action in the 1950s on a stormy Bodmin Moor and true to the melodramatic roots proceeds to bash the audience around the chops with plot details. If the dénouement wasn’t quite predictable neither was it shocking, despite much flashing of lights and thunderclaps.

Ultimately the production suffers from not being focussed on any particular theme. So family tensions, the occult, murder, madness, desire, subterfuge, a gloomy mansion, a stormy night for a will reading all lead us down dead ends without sufficiently piquing our interest in any of them. Again with so much of the playwright’s emphasis on plot, the characters are thinly drawn and rely largely on cliché and stereotype, something for which we cannot blame the actors who at least inject some energy into proceedings. So, for example, Gary Webster, who can play diamond geezers blindfold, found himself reaching for a readymade from the top shelf whilst the rest of the demonstrably talented cast were, again through no fault of their own, similarly untaxed. Marti Webb, from whom we always expect quality, had little to do and was thoroughly underused. Whilst the love/glamour interest, played with some style by Tracy Shaw, seemed to be dallying with a group of non-starters.

Director, Roy Marsden, puts in a performance, via the onstage phonograph, as the disembodied voice of the long dead owner of Glenthorne Manor. I had the feeling that he had not quite made up his mind about the style of the show and had gone for a gallimaufry of genres to cover all bases.

The set by Takis had everything one might want from a touring thriller and transported us back to the days of 50’s country house living.

As an example of a thriller that has everything bar thrills this is as good an example as you are likely to find.   ★★☆☆☆    Graham Wyles   25^th February 2020

Photo by Paul Coltas