Cat and mouse thriller

THE BUSINESS OF MURDER, Oldham Coliseum, to February 28

RICHARD Harris’s credentials as a stage and TV writer have been displayed countless times over the years, in everything from massively-successful comedy “Stepping Out” to this thriller, which back in the Eighties ran in the West End for seven years.


That’s a fairly impressive run for a thriller, but you can see why. The play, touring here as the latest in Middle Ground Theatre Company’s revivals of modern classics, is an intricate cat-and-mouse tale featuring only three characters — middle-aged Stone, policeman Hallett and writer Dee.

The apparently innocuous Stone (Robert Gwilym) brings Hallett (Paul Opacic) to his flat with a promise of information about and from his drug-dealing son. When Hallett arrives the son isn’t there, and Hallett promises to return that evening when he will be.

In the meantime Stone has invited writer Dee (Joanna Higson) to his flat to talk about his non-existent wife’s attempt to be a TV playwright.

There are wheels within many other wheels: Stone has no son, he already knows Hallett and Dee are secret lovers and his knowledge of both their lives is extensive. Does he plan to kill them for the past wrong he believes they did him? Or in the end, is the policeman playing him at his own game?

The intricacy of the story is very strong but where it falls down is in its meagre cast list and over-reliance on long monologues or — worse — stretches when all we are doing is watching Stone or the others wandering round the flat doing everyday things.

Director/designer Michael Lunney gives himself a full and well-dressed set with bedroom, kitchen and living room all visible and well used.

Gwilym impresses as the main character, running his own secret game and acting creepily along the way, while Opacic is a boorish policeman whose bluntness scores rather well in this context.

By the end you’ll know the right character to root for but you will have taken some time to choose since no-one here is playing straight with each other and allegiances falter.

The production is sturdy rather than special but retains a sense of menace and adds a strong, if obvious, finish.