Fatal Encounter, Theatre Royal Nottingham Review
Written by Sam for Theatre and Tonic.
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review. All opinions are our own.
Fatal Encounter is the second show within the Classic Thriller Season being held at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal throughout August. It was written in the 1990s by Francis Durbridge, who is renowned for his juicy thriller playwrights and radio drama.
In this particular play, we are taken back to the 1960s, in the study of Howard Mansfield’s house situated in Holland Park, London. The set design is simple yet effective as you’re able to establish the era through the furniture and costumes. This was executed well by the design team, Conal Walsh (Designer) and Geoff Gilder (Costume Designer) and items were placed around the set to encourage the cast to interact with them without causing any stage blocking.
Howard (John Goodrum) and Joanna Mansfield (Hannah Blaikie) are experiencing a few marital problems as something unnerving and mysterious is going on in their lives. Joanna is distant, seems shaken and is often disoriented through the lies she’s told her husband, Howard. However, upon returning home, Howard finds former friend Perry Kingsley (Pav Maru) lying on the floor with a gunshot wound with Joanna in hysterics. We see the shooting, but at the time, we have no idea what Perry Kingsley had over Joanna to drive her to shoot him – do we find out? Well, you’ll have to go and watch the show.
As Howard tells Joanna to immediately flee to their countryside cottage, things start to unravel as not everything is as covered up as the Mansfield’s would have liked. Following the shooting, we are graced with the presence of DI Chris Coldwell (Sarah Wynne Kordas) who I add, is a sassy character. Kordas brings charm, sarcasm and power to the stage as she’s determined to figure out whodunit.
At times, the play was hard to follow as more objects and characters were brought into the story, for example, the briefcase scene. When Howard was searching through the briefcase, he seemed intrigued by specific items, but we were not given any indication of why this was until much later. Maybe it’s intentional so the audience keep guessing throughout the show.
We were also introduced to characters who I felt were just added to bulk out the script, such as Rex Winter (David Osmond) and Hilary Van Zale (Susan Earnshaw) although, their performances were very strong. Osmond went from being an innocent young man who was involved with the wrong crowd to a bit of a villain for greed – I liked his character development despite not being a focus within the story.
There was a lack of emotion and believability behind the cast’s performances which, unfortunately, resulted in a lack of connection with the piece.
There are moments of laughter in the production, particularly within the second half as there’s a play on joke around the busyness of the Mansfield’s residence. It’s engaging because it keeps you thinking and trying to work out who is responsible for what and why it happened in the first place. I do think majority of the twists are clever and interlink well.
This production is on until Saturday 17th August. If you wish to see what happens within the Howard residence, buy your ticket here.
★ ★ ★
