Derbyshire theatre company Tabs Productions has revealed the three plays it will be presenting as part of the 2026 Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.
The season will begin with Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner’s Anybody for Murder? which Tabs last performed at Chesterfield’s Pomegranate in 2019 as part of a seven-play repertory season celebrating 70 years of the theatre.
This comedy thriller features Max who is planning to murder his wife, collect her life insurance and enjoy life with his girlfriend. But Mary and George arrive on their Greek island to tell them they are beneficiaries of a large fortune. Soon everyone is hell bent on murder. It will run from Tuesday 11 until Saturday 15 August.
The Nightmare Room was part of the 2018 Classic Thriller Season and is John Goodrum’s adaptation of a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Sarah Wynne Kordas will reprise her role as Catherine while Corinne Begluk will take the role of Helen. She last appeared with Tabs in 2018 as Margueritte St Juste in Louise Page’s adaptation of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel.
The play involves Helen finding herself bound and blindfolded in a locked room. Her captor, her best friend Catherine, challenges her to a game of Russian roulette to decide which of them will win the handsome film star they both desire. But the game – like the room – is far from what it seems. The Nightmare Room will run from Tuesday 18 until Saturday 22 August.
The final offering in the thriller season is The Man Trap, Sean Aita’s translation and adaptation of Piège pour un homme seul by Robert Thomas. It features Daniel Edwards who is desperate to find his wife who has gone missing after an argument at their remote Cornish holiday cottage. But when he finds himself confronted by a woman claiming to be her, he’s sure he’s never seen her before. Is he suffering from amnesia or is she a fraudster?
The cast comprises five Tabs regulars, Juliette Strobel, Susan Earnshaw, Sarah Wynne Kordas, John Goodrum and Pavan Maru.
The Man Trap will be performed at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday 25 until Saturday 29 August.
Karen Henson from Tabs said: “We’re thrilled to be back, thrilling Nottingham for our 38th year! Who needs to go on holiday? Come with us to a Greek island for Brian Clemens’ wonderful comedy thriller, Anybody For Murder? Next on to London for a cooler, contemporary, city break with The Nightmare Room, a world of rivalry in love and friendship. Our last stop is a grey and stormy Cornwall for The Man Trap, the premiere of Sean Aita’s contemporary adaptation of Robert Thomas’ play, Trap for a Lonely Man. Mobile phones and no drinks cabinet? Surely, some mistake? But never fear: there will be French windows and an inspector. Hope to see you there.”
https://trch.co.uk/whats-on/classic-thriller-season-the-man-trap-7wt8
