Tom Chambers: Putting the morose into Chief Inspector Morse in Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts. Picture:
THIS is Re-Morse, a new staging of Alma Cullen’s Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, the first Morse stage play.
Taken on a small tour in 2010 and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in a 90-minute version in March 2017, it returns for a nationwide tour on a grander scale, mounted by Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep, with a cast led by 2008 Strictly champ Tom Chambers as Morse and Tachia Newall – Macbeth in Amy Leach’s Macbeth at Leeds Playhouse in 2022 – as Lewis in the detective double act.
Cullen wrote more than a handful of episodes for the television series that ran from 1987 to 2000, based on Colin Dexter’s books. House Of Ghosts is an original story, set as ever in Oxford, in 1987, although Colin Richmond’s functional set design does not evoke the city of dreaming spires, typified by the Crown pub being represented by two men – Morse and Lewis – leaning on a bar in Alas Smith And Jones mode.
Cullen’s play mirrors both the two-hour span of each TV episode and the familiar structure of short scenes, while adding a theatrical element by rooting the play in a production of Hamlet. Or, rather, two productions, one warming up for a London run at the Oxford Playhouse in 1987; the other, a student production in 1962 with the same director in his gilded youth and Morse forever in the background in a bit-part.
Detective double act: Tachia Newall’s Lewis, left, and Tom Chambers’ Morse in Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts. Picture: Johan Persson
This is the House Of Ghosts, a reference both to figures re-emerging from Morse’s academic past and to the significance of ghosts [Hamlet’s father] in Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Cullen’s play opens with Spin Glancy’s Justin, already highly strung and later prone to putting powders up his nose, putting too much ham into a Hamlet monologue. Enter young actress of her generation Rebecca Downey’s Ophelia (Eliza Teale), who suddenly drops dead, blood spewing from her mouth. This is not Ophelia’s usual death by drowning, but death for real, alas poor Rebecca.
Chambers’ Morse, taking on the John Thaw mantle in the year Thaw first played him, happens to be in the audience, bringing the performance and production run to a halt, much to the ire of Lawrence Baxter (Robert Mountford), the vainglorious, uncompromising director in desperate need of a hit.
Into the web of intrigue Cullen spins not only the reckless, crushing Lawrence from Morse’s student past, but also the now dipso actress Verity (Charlotte Randle) and university historian Ellen (Teresa Banham), one of Morse’s unrequited loves from his salad days.
Re-appearing too is Paul Kincaid (Mountford, part two), once the doyen of Oxford student actors and Baxter’s rival in bed-post conquests, but now answering God’s calling as a Monsignor (who takes Rebecca’s funeral at the outset of the superior Act Two).
Stoking up old history: University historian Ellen (Teresa Banham) and Inspector Morse (Tom Chambers) in Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts. Picture: Johan Persson
Glancy’s Justin and James Gladdon’s “piece of north eastern rough”, Freddy, the uppity Laertes to his flaky Hamlet, are at odds with each other both on and off stage. Enter the fray Lawrence’s wife Harriet (Olivia Onyehara, from the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s The 39 Steps and Pilot Theatre/Northern Stage’s A Song For Ella Grey), pre-occupied with IVF treatment in London.
The plot thickens, revelations pile up, not least of Baxter’s practice of bedding his leading lady pre-show to bring out the best performance, but House Of Ghosts does not hold a candle to the TV series, and some of the acting under the normally reliable Anthony Banks’s direction is surprisingly histrionic. The sozzled meltdown of Randle’s Verity at the Crown, however, is a comic gem.
Act Two is much more sure-footed, not least in the partnership of Chambers, bringing the morose to loner Morse with a frown worthy of Thaw, and Newall’s matter-of-fact, diligent Sergeant Lewis, craving a night in alone with his wife.
Revisiting an old favourite is not always a good idea, and in truth Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts induced a feeling or remorse in your reviewer.
Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Tom Chambers’ Detective Chief Inspector Morse in Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts. Credit: Johan Persson
TOM Chambers returns to the York stage on Tuesday for the first time since appearing in Torben Betts’s ghost story chiller-cum-psychological thriller Murder In The Dark at the Theatre Royal.
In that September 2023 premiere tour he waded through the quagmire of playing washed-up pop star Danny Sierra, a deeply unlovable, self-pitying alcoholic.
Now he plays another chap who likes a drink, the “high-functioning alcoholic” Detective Chief Inspector Morse, an altogether more popular fellow – “the nation’s favourite detective”, as co-producer Simon Friend calls the erudite opera, crossword and real ale enthusiast from Colin Dexter’s novels and 13-year television series, developed by Anthony Minghella and Kenny McBain in 1987, starring John Thaw.
Chambers is appearing in Simon Friend Entertainment and Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s new touring co-production of the first stage play in the Morse franchise, written by Alma Cullen in 2010 after penning episodes as The Secret Of Bay 5B (1989), The Infernal Serpent (1990), Fat Chance (1991) and The Death of The Self (1992) for the ITV series.
Tom Chambers’ washed-up pop star Danny Sierra in Torben Betts’s psychological thriller Murder In The Dark, on tour at York Theatre Royal in September 2023. Picture: Pamela Raith
“I am absolutely thrilled to be bringing to the stage the nationally loved character of Inspector Morse,” says Tom. “Played by John Thaw in the TV series, it is an iconic role which audiences clearly loved alongside the Morse murder mysteries.
“This brand-new production is a tantalising tale, rich in story and character and even unpicks some of Morse’s closely guarded personal life. It’s going to be a fabulous evening of entertainment.”
In Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, a chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress dies suddenly on stage mid-performance. Morse embarks on a gripping investigation, one that begins as a suspicious death inquiry but takes a darker turn when the legendary inspector, in tandem with Detective Sergeant Lewis, uncovers a connection to sinister events in his own past, 25 years earlier.
“We’re at Richmond Theatre this week after opening Birmingham three weeks ago,” says 2008 Strictly Come Dancing winner Tom, who is reuniting with director Anthony Banks after collaborating on the 2020/2021 tour of Dial M For Murder.
Tom Chambers’ Detective Chief Inspector Morse with Teresa Banham’s Ellen in Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts. Picture: Johan Persson
“It’s a brilliant piece of writing by Alma Cullen, who wrote for the TV series: beautifully written – very slick, very smooth – so it’s like watching Morse on TV with lots of short scenes, but now like Tetris on stage, where we’ve worked on the stage movement like in a ballet.
“The show has been working really well. I’m just amazed how much the audiences love Morse, and the relationship between Morse and Lewis [played by Waterloo Road alumnus Tachia Newall] is so well expressed too.”
Audiences have warmed to Tom’s portrayal of Morse. “Being the youngest of five, I’m a natural pleaser,” he says. “But I definitely feel that it’s also about what John Thaw brought to the role. Somebody pointed out I’m playing Morse at exactly the same John Thaw started playing him. [It turns out this is not correct, Chambers is 48, Thaw was 44]. John stayed looking that way for decades!
“John brought his natural brilliance to it, and I feel it’s written in a way that you can imagine his Morse saying it, so you don’t want to swim against the tide. It feels nourishing, comforting, like soul food, where you know Morse and what it will be like and it feels a pleasure to be there. It’s like a two-way relationship [with the audience]. We give a sense of John Thaw without being a copy.”
Partners in tackling crime: Tom Chambers’s Detective Chief Inspector Morse, right, with Tachia Newall’s Detective Sergeant Lewis in Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts. Credit: Johan Persson
House Of Ghosts has the structure of a story within a story, where Morse is transported back to 25 years earlier, surrounded by actors from a production of Hamlet in university days. “It’s satisfyingly intricate,” says Tom. “One of the delights is that information unravels in such a clever way that audiences feel complete when it’s finished, and the music fits in beautifully too.
“It’s one of the favourite pieces that I’ve done because I’ve really enjoyed trying to be the opposite of performing. Watching John Thaw, who was so ‘unpolicemanlike’, it’s made me realise that the craft of acting is to be as relaxed as possible but with intention – you can still feel your heart beat, and your jugular on your neck, especially on first nights. I just love the dialogue too, and Morse’s attitude; how he’s analogue, not digital. Just charming.”
Tom, by the way, has many fond memories of York. “My aunty, Shirley O’Brien, is from York. We’d always end up in the Minster,” he says.
Simon Friend Entertainment and Birmingham Repertory Theatre present Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, Grand Opera House, York, September 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster for Anthony Banks’s touring production of Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, playing Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow
York oboe player Desmond Clarke: Performing on Navigators Art’s YO Underground #5 bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse
FOOD for thought for heading out and about as York Food & Drink Festival opens and Inspector Morse is on the case in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations.
Navigators Art presents YO Underground #5, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm
YORK arts collective Navigators Art’s regular fulcrum of left-field new music, words and performance returns this weekend with a focus on ethnic instruments, acoustic-electronic improvisation, words and guitar-based fusion, plus passionate new songwriting.
Expect bold, beautiful and adventurous sounds from flautist Carmen Troncoso, York oboe player Desmond Clarke and Osc~, No Spinoza and a new York ‘supergroup’, the NSC Sound Union, combining members of Soma Crew and Namke Communications. Admission is £6 at www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance) or £10 on the door.
Sam Blythe: Taking on a multitude of roles in George Orwell’s Animal Farm at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Solo show of the week: Sam Blythe in Animal Farm, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
CELEBRATING 70 years of its publication on August 17 1945 and 30 since the first performance of Guy Masterson’s solo adaptation of George’s Orwell’s satirical allegorical dystopian novella, Sam Blythe takes up Masterson’s mantle on stage.
Bringing all of Orwell’s multiple characters to vivid life, Blythe transforms into Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer, Boxer, Clover, Mollie, Benjamin, Muriel, the Sheep, Dogs, Cows, Hens and the Cat in a performance designed to shock, enchant, bewitch and bewilder, ringing out Orwell’s prescient warning that politicians through the ages, and of all creeds and colours, will often let power corrupt them. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rebecca Vaughan’s Lady Susan in Dyad Productions’ Austen’s Women: Lady Susan. Picture: Seamus Flanagan
Magnificently crafted tale of manipulation and manners of the week:Dyad Productions in Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, York Theatre Royal Studio, today, 2pm; Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm
DYAD Productions return with a new solo comedy show, Jane Austen’s 1794 tale of manipulation and manners. Directed by Andrew Margerison, company regular Rebecca Vaughan plays devil-may-care widow Lady Susan, oppressed, rebellious daughter Frederica, long-suffering sister-in-law Catherine, family matriarch Mrs De Courcy and insouciant best friend Alicia.
At the vanguard of Vaughan’s wickedly humorous adaptation is the charming, scheming and witty Lady Susan, taking on society and making it her own, but has this coquette met her match? Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Skosh chef-proprietor Neil Bentinck: Cookery demonstration at St Crux Hall on September 27 at 1pm at York Food & Drink Festival
Festival of the week: York Food & Drink Festival, cooking until September 28
HIGHLIGHTS of this autumn’s York Food & Drink Festival include 70 street food and produce stands in Parliament Street; the Entertainment Marquee on Parliament Street, serving a bill of Live for St Leonard’s Hospice music acts; more live music in St Sampson’s Square, and demonstrations, events, tastings, and sampling at St Crux Hall.
Further events will be two taste trails; the Food Factory in St Crux Hall and Museum Gardens; the Pork Pie competition in Bedern Hall; Curry & Comedy at the NCEM; Yahala Mataam’s refugee pop-up restaurant night and cookery school; Tang’s festival debut; Jorvik Viking Centre’s activities with an historic twist and the Meet The Makers drinks fair. For the full festival programme, head to: yorkfoodfestival.com.
One of Simon Baxter’s photographs from All The Wood’s A Stage, his joint exhibition with Joe Cornish at Nunnington Hall. Picture: Simon Baxter
Ryedale exhibition launch of the week: All The Wood’s A Stage, Nunnington Hall, near York, from today to March 29 2026
ALL The Wood’s A Stage will continue the 2022 showcase Woodland Sanctuary, exhibited originally at the Moors Centre in Danby. This latest chapter features predominantly new photographs that celebrate the beauty and vital significance of trees, woodlands and forests across the UK.
Photographers Joe Cornish and Simon Baxter depict trees as silent performers on nature’s stage, encouraging us to observe, listen and reflect. Trees provide joy, peace and inspiration, being lungs of the Earth, guardians of biodiversity and a crucial part of our mental and physical well-being. Through changing seasons, they symbolise life, death and renewal. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/nunnington-hall.
The poster for The Return Of The Legends, featuring Strictly Come Dancing alumni Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waites, at York Barbican
Dance show of the week: The Return Of The Legends, starring Brendan, James, Pasha, Vincent and Ian, York Barbican, today, 7.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing alumni Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waite follow up 2024’s Legends Of The Dancefloor with new Latin, tango, rumba and ballroom routines and more Strictly stories in The Return Of The Legends. Joined by a supporting cast, they deliver a night of dancing, camaraderie, music and laughter. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Robert Took, Georgina Liley, Catherine Warnock and James McLean in Mikron Theatre’s Hush Hush!, on tour at Clements Hall, York
Touring play of the week: Mikron Theatre in Hush Hush!, Clements Hall, York, Sunday, 4pm
IN a daring theatrical mission, Marsden’s Mikron Theatre Company infiltrates the clandestine world of wartime code-breaking in Lucie Raine’s Hush Hush!, exposing the vital contributions of the unsung heroes of Bletchley Park’s Hut 3, whose ingenuity and unwavering resolve helped secure victory.
Peggy Valentine arrives at Bletchley in 1940, 18 years old, headstrong and gifted. Finding herself in a world of boffins, soldiers and debutantes, Peggy must shoulder the burden of high-pressure war work while navigating a new world of feuds, friendships and growing up in a frame of absolute secrecy. Mikron’s crack team of actor-musicians, Georgina Liley, Robert Took, Catherine Warnock and familiar face James McLean, blends original songs, live music and compelling storytelling. Box office for returns only: 01484843701 or email admin@mikron.org.uk.
Tom Chambers as Detective Chief Inspector Morse in the first Inspector Morse original stage play, House Of Ghosts, at Grand Opera House, York
Murder mystery of the week: Inspector Morse: House Of Ghosts, Grand Opera House, York, September 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
BIRMINGHAM Repertory Theatre and Simon Friend Entertainment are touring the Inspector Morse franchise’s debut original stage play, House Of Ghosts, penned by Alma Cullen, directed by Anthony Banks and starring Tom Chambers.
A chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress dies suddenly on stage during a performance, prompting Detective Chief Inspector Morse to embark on a gripping investigation. What begins as a suspicious death inquiry takes a darker turn when the legendary inspector, in tandem with Detective Sergeant Lewis, uncovers a connection to sinister events in his own past, 25 years earlier. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kieran Hodgson: Voicing his thoughts on the USA
Comedy gig of the week: Kieran Hodgson: Voice Of America, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 26, 8pm
AMERICA. What happened, man? Ever since he was a little loser kid in a little loser country (yes, England), Holmfirth-born Kieran Hodgson has been putting on an American accent and dreaming a big American dream.
Nowadays, however, it’s not so simple. Didn’t America go completely bananas? Didn’t he get too old for dreaming? And when Hollywood comes calling, does Kieran actually sound American after all? Here he assesses how a scared world feels about the USA and impersonates a bunch of old prospectors and former Presidents. Box office for returns only: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The horror, the horror: Dead Northern returns to City Screen Picturehouse
Film event of the week: Dead Northern presents The Festival of Horror, City Screen Picturehouse, York, September 26 to 28
IN “the world’s most haunted city”, Dead Northern hosts three days of film and live events, taking in music, social activities, food, drink and merchandise. Friday Frights opens with a 10.30am showcase of student short films and videos, followed by UK premiere of Sun at noon with a Q&A.
The 2pm short film showcase focuses on Teeth, Claws, Tentacles and Clowns. At 4pm the Dead Talks talk reveals Dracula’s mysterious connection to York under the splendid title of Who Are You Calling A Count?! A mystery Dracula classic film re-surfaces at 5pm and the UK premiere of Hellhouse LLC: Lineage is booked in for 7.30pm. The night concludes with the Welcome Social & Quiz with the Independent Horror Society.
Saturday Screams kicks off with the Flesh & Bone short film showcase at 10.30am, followed by the world premiere of A Mother’s Recall at noon and the Twisted Tales short film showcase at 1.45pm.
The 3.30pm UK film premiere will be Home Education, concluding with a Q&A, and the 5.30pm classic feature will be the 40th anniversary release of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.
7.30pm’s Signature Live Event will be Spirits By Spirits; the 8.45pm feature film will be The Beast Of Riverside Hollow, with a Q&A, and the night ends with the VIP Awards Party at 11pm.
Day three, Sunday Shock The 28th, launches with the 10.30am classic feature, 1981’s Evil Dead, followed by the UK premiere of Nightfall – A Paranormal Investigation at noon and the Spectres & Shadows short film showcase at 1.30pm.
The UK premiere of Tabula Rasa will be shown at 2.45pm; the 4.15pm screening of He Kills At Night will include a Q&A, and Inside The Mind will be the theme of the 6pm short film showcase. In Dead Talks Part II at 7.30pm, the Independent Horror Society welcomes special guests for When Horror Struck Again, a discussion on underrated sequels.
The festival concludes with a classic feature, 1987’s Evil Dead II. For more details on Dead Northern Part VI 2025 Horror Film Festival, visit deadnorthern.co.uk/dead-northern-2025-horror-film-festival.
In Focus: York Printmakers’ 10th Anniversary Handmade Print Fair, York Cemetery, today and tomorrow
Russell Hughes discussing monoprinting. Picture: Chris Kendall Photography
THIS weekend York Printmakers celebrates a decade of creativity, collaboration and craftsmanship with its 10th Annual Print Fair, designed for lovers of original art and handmade processes.
This year’s fair reflects the group’s continuing mission: to keep traditional printmaking alive, accessible and valued.
Over the past decade, York Printmakers has grown into a vibrant collective of more than 40 artists, all committed to the authenticity of printmaking. The fair showcases a wide range of techniques — from linocut to collagraph, screen print to woodcut — all created by hand.
“People are often surprised to learn the difference between a reproduction and a handmade print,” says founding member Sally Clarke. “At our fair, you get to see the blocks, the plates, the tools — and meet the people who made them.
“In a world where everything is easily copied, our fair champions the original: prints made by hand, with care and intention.”
Bridget Hunt describing how to make a collograph plate. Picture: Chris Kendall Photography
This year’s milestone event reflects on ten years of artistic evolution, celebrating the unique voices of long-standing members while championing the newer members to the collective: artists whose fresh perspectives and experimental approaches are helping to shape the future of the craft.
“It’s always a pleasure to welcome new members, especially those just discovering printmaking or beginning their creative journey,” says long-standing member Russell Hughes. “They bring energy and new ideas that inspire even the most experienced among us. And in return, we’re able to share knowledge and techniques that have stood the test of time. That exchange is what keeps the group dynamic and evolving.”
Visitors can explore a rich variety of work, meet the makers and buy original prints directly from the artists.
York Printmakers’ 10th Anniversary Handmade Print Fair, Chapel and Harriet Room, York Cemetery, Cemetery Road, York, September 20 and 21, 10am to 5pm. Free entry.
York Printmakers’ poster for this weekend’s print fair at York Cemetery
Tom Chambers’ Danny Sierra in Murder In The Dark. Picture: Pamela Raith
AFTER a five-and-a-half-hour slog from Norfolk that felt like one long detour, your reviewer took to his Upper Circle seat last night just in time to be greeted by the sound of a car. A cruel joke, but one in keeping with the tone of Torben Betts’s ghost story.
“It’s fair to say that Murder In The Dark is something of a departure for me as regards genre,” says Betts in his programme notes. “If I am known for anything as a playwright, it’s for dark comedies of social embarrassment with a bit of political commentary thrown in.”
What is Murder In The Dark? Despite its title, this is not a modern twist on an Agatha Christie whodunit, thereby offering an immediate contrast with Original Theatre’s last Theatre Royal visit with The Mirror Crack’d last October. An immediate contrast too for Susie Blake, swapping Miss Marple for farmer’s wife/religious zealot Mrs Bateman.
Betts’s challenge from Original Theatre artistic director Alastair Whatley was to “write something that would, hopefully, both disturb and entertain”. The result is still a dark comedy of social embarrassment, but with a bit of moralising about the price of fame thrown in, in a supernatural psychological thriller cum dysfunctional family drama.
Rather than clever twists and turns, in the sleight-of-hand manner of The Woman In Black, thudding bumps in the road are administered in the style of a horror movie with a relish for shlock humour.
Betts enjoys pulling the rug from under your presumptions from the off, even setting up a routine thriller opening where washed-up pop star Danny Sierra (Tom Chambers) and his young girlfriend Sarah (Laura White) are led into a dingy, creepy rural cottage by the strange, eerie Mrs Bateman and her scary dog (heard but never seen) after a car crash .
It is New Year’s Eve: the nearest shop is 20 miles away, but the hostile weather means they are cut off anyway; the electricity is on the blink; the television keeps sparking into life with Three Blind Mice; there is no wi-fi connection; the loo and the shower are in a shed outside.
Car crash? Rescued by a frankly weird woman? How very Kathy Bates and Misery. Susie Blake will go on to give this chameleon play’s most enjoyable performance as someone who knows more from the past than she is letting on.
Tom Chambers, by contrast, has to wade through the quagmire of playing the deeply unlovable but once adored Danny Sierra (real name Nigel Carmichael,before pop stardom came his way with Dance Party Five and their chart-topping Murder In The Dark).
Danny is a self-pitying alcoholic, and one by one, family members from the crash arrive at the cottage to paint the full picture, the day after his mother’s funeral. His more talented, songwriter brother William (Owen Oakeshott), discarded in pursuit of fame. His ex-wife Rebecca (Rebecca Charles), discarded (but he still loves her, he protests). His songwriter son Jake (Jonny Green), neglected, drifting, resentful.
In truth, they are all unappealing, not great company on stage, the general nastiness turning scenes rancid, but not aiding Betts’s pursuit of comedy, which keeps changing its tack too, briefly farce at the start of the second half, but more often clunky.
Did Jake and later Danny see a young woman in a ballerina dancer’s costume or were they imagining it? Not telling!
Perhaps this supernatural undercurrent prompted director Philip Franks to say “we’ll see whether my more adult theory – that horror often puts its finger on what worries us most as a society at any given time – will also hold true” in Betts’s play. Hence Betts’s moralistic tone.
Horror story, nightmare, fever dream, sometimes hammy comedy thriller, suffused with ugly family politics, Murder In The Dark never settles on one path, to the detriment of being as unsettling as it needs to be. What’s more, too clever by half in its trickery, it makes less sense the more the plot thickens but unravels as logic takes a hike.
Murder In The Dark? Left in the dark, more like. Definitely not a whodunit, it ultimately has you asking Betts, “whydunit?”.
Tom Chambers’ troubled pop star Danny Sierra in a scene from Murder In The Dark. Picture: Pamela Raith
TORBEN Betts first made his mark at a North Yorkshire theatre when Alan Ayckbourn talent-spotted the fledgling playwright and gave him a residency at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1999.
That year, the Scarborough theatre presented the premiere of his debut play, A Listening Heaven. Now, Betts’s new thriller, the ghost story Murder In The Dark, is heading to York Theatre Royal from September 19 to 23 on Original Theatre Company’s tour, directed by Philip Franks.
“Horror films have been my guilty pleasure since I was a morbid child,” says Philip, who was at the helm of Original Theatre’s touring production of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at the Theatre Royal last October too.
“Now is the time to find out whether many years’ worth of jump scares and terrible nightmares can be put to good use. We’ll also see whether my more adult theory – that horror often puts its finger on what worries us most as a society at any given time – will also hold true.”
Betts’s setting is a modern-day New Year’s Eve, when a car crash on a lonely road brings famous but troubled singer Danny Sierra and his extended family to an isolated holiday cottage in rural England. From the moment they arrive, a sequence of inexplicable events begins to occur…and then the lights go out!
Susie Blake, Miss Marple in last year’s visit, will play farmer’s wife Mrs Bateman alongside 2008 Strictly Come Dancing champion, Top Hat leading man and Holby City, Waterloo Road and Father Brown star Tom Chambers as Danny, Rebecca Charles as Rebecca, Jonny Green as Jake, Owen Oakeshott as William and Laura White as Sarah.
Tom Chambers: “One of these flattering moments,” he says, of Torben Betts writing the role of Danny Sierra expressly for him
When the Covid19 pandemic shut down his tour in Dial M For Murder overnight, Tom appeared in Original Theatre’s remotely recorded lockdown film of Torben Betts’s Apollo 13: The Dark Side Of The Moon and subsequently in Original Theatre artistic director Alastair Whatley’s online piece Into The Night.
“About a year later, out of the blue I got a text from Alastair saying he’d commissioned Torben to write a ghost story with me in mind for the lead role,” he recalls. “It was one of those flattering moments you dream of!”
Ten pages arrived, then the full draft, and now here Tom is, two weeks into the tour. “The Dark Side Of The Moon was only 50 minutes. This [rather longer] new play has been really fascinating but also extremely challenging because Torben has written it like machine gunfire, firing off in all directions, so you think ‘who’s line is it next?’!”
Working on the play in rehearsals and now in its early weeks on stage, 46-year-old Tom says: “It’s one of those pieces where, as we’ve gone along, we’ve all thought on our feet, with none of us quite sure at first what it was.
“With its dysfunctional family at odds in a psychological thriller, I knew it was an emotional piece, with all the humour in there too, but you don’t know what you’re dealing with, because it is scary, funny and emotional at the same time, and so you’re not sure how the audience will take it!
“On stage, it’s become more like a dark comedy, and it’s been really interesting listening to the audience reactions and realising they’re laughing from very early on. But there are really scary moments too and a couple of twists that we’re asking people not to give away afterwards.”
Learning his lines has found Tom thinking: “Torben is like Marmite! I sort of love him and hate him at the same time. His script is very interesting, very exciting and an absolute pig to learn.
Tom Chambers, seated, shares a lighthearted moment with director Philip Franks in the rehearsal room for Torben Betts’s thriller Murder In The Dark. Picture: Pamela Raith
“I haven’t talked to him about the part, though he did sit quietly in the corner at rehearsals on a few occasions, typing away, but not interfering. Torben has allowed Philip to shave, trim and manipulate the script, letting the production grow under his directorship.”
In turn, “Philip is one of the best directors I’ve worked with, always very patient” says Tom. “He’s an actor as well as a director, and so he really lets you play with it at first, and then he very carefully re-shapes it, inspiring you with his ideas. He’s like a wonderful conductor working with an orchestra, a fantastic maestro.”
Tom describes his lead role, Danny Sierra, as a “washed-up pop star from 20 years ago”. “To play his character, to be aware of his body language, I approach him as someone who’s been in the limelight, which I’ve experienced: the shiny bits, the pitfalls, the facades, the truth and reality of how jaded he is,” he says.
“I just try to make him human. Like all of us, he tries to justify the reasons things have happened in his life. He’s made mistakes, but he does have a heart, he’s not soulless, not completely selfish.”
Danny has headed to the isolated cottage for a family funeral and must communicate with his brother for the first time in years. “Everything unravels in this old farm cottage, which is like a deserted island with very few creature comforts. That initially turns the play into a comedy, but then it becomes twisted, warped, deranged and strange, so it’s very intriguing!” says Tom.
As for the ghost story…wait and see.
Original Theatre Company in Murder In The Dark, York Theatre Royal, September 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 14+.
“Torben’s script is very interesting, very exciting and an absolute pig to learn,” says lead actor Tom Chambers. Picture: Pamela Raith
