Tag Archives: Thriller

Spider’s Web (Oct 3 – Oct 12, 2019)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Spider’s Web (Oct 3 – Oct 12, 2019)

Clarissa, the second wife of Henry Hailsham Brown, is adept at spinning tales of adventure for their bored diplomatic circle. When a murder takes place in her drawing room she finds the drama much harder to cope with, especially as she suspects the murderer might be her young stepdaughter Pippa. Worse still, the victim is the man who broke up Henry’s first marriage! Clarissa’s fast talking places her in some hair raising experiences, as she comes to learn that the facts are much more terrifying than fiction…

“Suspense, anyone? The old fashioned kind? Who’s for good, clean fun? One is Agatha Christle’s 1954 puzzler, The Spider’s Web.” – Howard Thompson, The New York Times

Trap For A Lonely Man (Jan 25 – Feb 3, 2018)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Trap For A Lonely Man (Jan 25 – Feb 3, 2018)

Summed up as “a psychological thriller shrouded in mystery, a tortuous plot and a killer twist at the end!” Trap For A Lonely Man (original French title Piege pour un homme seul) by Robert Thomas translated by Lucienne Hill and John Sutro will play from January 21 to February 3, 2018. It would undoubtedly be more famous had Alfred Hitchcock lived longer – it was in the pipeline to be filmed by him for Twentieth Century-Fox, with a cast of international stars.

After having reported his wife’s disappearance to the police, Daniel Corban is visited by a young priest who claims he has found Madam Corban alive and well. When Daniel meets the woman claiming to be his wife, he is outraged to discover that he has never seen her before. It becomes increasingly apparent to Daniel that he is facing some sort of conspiracy, as various witnesses declare that she is indeed the Madam Corban they have seen happily ensconced in the chalet with Daniel before her disappearance occurred. When the police fail to believe his story, he can only conclude that they are trying to drive him mad — or worse still, drive him to his death. Just who is telling the truth and to what lengths can a person go to distort the facts?

The play was seen in London and on Broadway, but has enjoyed success over the years with community theatre productions. The Camden News described it as “A rollercoaster of intrigue and suspense.” I hope SCP audiences will feel the same way. ~ Camden News.

Strictly Murder (Jan 26 – Feb 4, 2017)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Strictly Murder (Jan 26 – Feb 4, 2017)

Strictly Murder by Brian Clemens

April 1939. An English couple, Peter and Suzy, are living in Provence in idyllic isolation, far, it seems, from the rumblings of the coming war. Their peace is shattered from within when Suzy discovers she has been betrayed: Peter is not the man he claims to be! Is he in fact a ruthless killer on the run? When a Scotland Yard detective arrives, events become even more complicated and frightening. Lies, subterfuge and murder make this fast-moving thriller a dark and disturbing roller coaster of bluff and double bluff. “…an intricate, interesting and enigmatic story… plenty of intrigue and suspense…” ~ British Theatre Guide

Gaslight (October 1-10, 2015)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Gaslight (October 1-10, 2015)

By Patrick Hamilton. Adapted by David Jacklin.

The season opens with Patrick Hamilton’s famous nail-biting Victorian thriller Gaslight. Hailed by the critic of The New Yorker Magazine as “a masterpiece of suspense,” Gaslight is set in fog-bound London in 1880 in the home of Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. It is late afternoon, a time which Hamilton notes as being the time “before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea.” As the play opens Bella is clearly on edge, and the stern reproaches from her overbearing husband make matters worse. What most perturbs Bella is Jack’s unexplained absences from the house: he will not tell her where he is going, and this increases her anxiety. As the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that Jack is intent on convincing Bella that she is going insane. Why is he doing this, and will he succeed?

Pack of Lies (March 19-28, 2015)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Pack of Lies (March 19-28, 2015)

By Hugh Whitemore

What would you do if you were asked to betray your best friends because the authorities believed them to be spies? Which is more important, loyalty to your friends or loyalty to your country? That’s the situation at the heart of this play, based on the true story of Peter and Helen Kroger who − at the height of the Cold War in England in 1961 − were found guilty of spying for the Russians and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. Pack of Lies focuses on the moral dilemmas that devastate ordinary people when requested by the authorities to spy on their friends. First staged in 1983, the play was successful in both London and New York, and was later filmed with Ellen Burstyn and Alan Bates. The New York City Tribune described Pack of Lies as “A highly suspenseful and continuously engrossing spy thriller.” It’s a riveting and highly entertaining play for the thinking person.

The Game’s Afoot (November 21-30, 2013)

By | | ,
Comments Off on The Game’s Afoot (November 21-30, 2013)

or Holmes For The Holidays

An American Comedy Thriller by Ken Ludwig

Winner! 2012 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allen Poe Awards – Best Play!

It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast-members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. Then it’s up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.

“An inspired whodunit…a snappy, clever drawing-room mystery. There are twists in playwright Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot that cause the audience to gasp.” – The Cleveland Plain Dealer

An Inspector Calls (September 30 – October 9, 2010)

By | | ,
Comments Off on An Inspector Calls (September 30 – October 9, 2010)

A Thriller by J. B. Priestly

Though ostensibly a remarkably clear and effective drama, an air of mystic unreality underlies An Inspector Calls. When a young girl commits suicide in an English industrial city, an eminently respectable British family is subjected to a routine inquiry in connection with the death. An inspector calls to interrogate them. To some degree, all are implicated, but what was a friendly, close-knit family at the beginning of the evening is revealed as selfish, self-centred, and cowardly before the night is over. And who was the “inspector”? Why was no suicide reported to the police? How did he know?

“A psychologically adept work and a most engaging play!” – Variety

Wait Until Dark (May 7-23, 2009)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Wait Until Dark (May 7-23, 2009)

A Thriller by Frederick Knott

“…a first rate shocker…the suspense drama we’ve long awaited eagerly.” – New York Post

“As directed by L. Garth Allen, the play scales one rising line of tension until the shocking climatic scene.” – North York Mirror

A masterfully constructed thriller that moves from one moment of suspense to another as it builds toward an electrifying, breath-stopping final scene. A tense thriller in which a blind girl, alone in a Greenwich Village apartment, is stalked by vicious drug smugglers. A startling shocker even as the curtain falls.