Nottingham Theatre Royal – until Saturday 5 August 2023
Reviewed by Louise Ford
3***
It’s always the quiet ones!
Tabs Productions started back in 1989 and took on The Colin McIntyre Thriller Season in 2012 ,so they have a long history with their Nottingham audiences. This summer’s Classic Thriller series kicked off with a psychological thriller. Love from a Stranger is by the Queen of Crime herself Agatha Christie and Frank Vosper (an actor and dramatist ). The story was first made into a film in 1937 staring Basil Rathbone and Ann Harding (although some of the characters’ names were changed).
The set opens in a London flat with Aunty Lou (Susan Earnshaw), bustling around helping and hindering the packing up of the family silver. Whoops, butter fingers! It’s 1950s London and two girls who share a flat Mavis (Kia Pope) and Cecily (Lara Lemon) have had the most incredible luck. They have won a sweepstake.
One of the flat mates is taking advantage of the winnings to free herself from the grind of her office job and is going to travel for three months. Hence the flat packing. The other is anxiously awaiting the return of her fiancée Nigel (Pavan Maru), from the Sudan for their wedding. I’m not quite sure why the Sudan was chosen, it’s not clear what he’s been doing there. Suffice to say that they haven’t seen each other for several years and Cecily is getting cold feet.
Back to the packing. The advert has been placed for temporary tenants and the telephone calls lead to some amusing exchanges and misunderstandings. Aunty Lou decides to take a break and heads off for a lovely lunch. Cecily is alone in the flat and enter a mysterious stranger. His arrival puts the cat amongst the pigeons . Suffice to say a whirlwind romance, a quiet wedding and a move to an isolated cottage in the country (without a telephone) are not necessarily the ingredients for marital bliss.
All of the characters are at one level firmly rooted in the tradition of the suspense genre and at another abit of a characature. The role of the daft country maid, Ethel (Juliette Strobel), is a bit laboured . There are however some nice touches, Cecily’s clipped vowels and reserve are very Brief Encounter, Aunty Lou has more than a touch of Hyacinth Bucket and Hodgson (Sarah Wynette Korda) as the creepy gardener who finds the buried bottles.
It all picks up the pace towards the end and finishes with a flourish. No plot spoilers please.