★★★☆☆ The action all takes place in the living room at 9 Thornton Square, London. Here the controlling master of the house enacts his preconceived plan to drive his dutiful and loving wife into a state of mental instability, the better to gain unfettered access to riches he knows lie somewhere within the property.

★★☆☆☆ Set in a hotel on an island somewhere off the English coast, Crimes is very much a play of two halves. The first comprises mostly a somewhat underwhelming scene-setting narration by the novelist/freelance detective Artemis Arinae (Ashley Christmas) – a female version of Poirot, complete with faux Belgian accent, who introduces a string of protagonists . . .

★★★☆☆ Stephen Mangan plays the hapless and bumbling lead character in this enjoyable stage adaptation of the 1950s Ealing comedy film of the same name. He has just enough of the floppy-haired, good-looking, innocent, charm to hold our attention and gain our sympathy.

★★★☆☆  All’s fair in love… or is it? William Boyd’s play examines the ironies lurking behind the respectable façade of marriage, where frustrations can bubble up and express themselves through seemingly innocuous rows about the mundane – and raw truths can sometimes spew out like lava, scorching those nearest, and dearest.