REVIEW: THE BUSINESS OF MURDER by Richard Harris at Theatre at the Tabard 23 Oct - 23 Nov 2024

Photographer: Matt Collins

‘a rapt audience audibly gasping as the final convolutions of the plot unravel to an unexpected and deeply satisfying end’ ★★★★★

‘Do you have any idea what’s going on’, comes a thundering whisper from somewhere in the auditorium as the lights go down on scene one of Richard Harris’s psychological crime thriller. Not an actor, but an audience member justifiably puzzled by a gripping, twisting, and genuinely bewildering opening. And not much more light by the Act One interval either, with ‘it’s very different’ and ‘unusual, isn’t it’ among the not-so-sotto voice comments on the stairway down to the half-time ales, vins rouge, and gins and tonic.

Now that sort of thing takes an audience two ways, and some of us like being puzzled and some of us don’t. But a show that starts opaque and then annoyingly remains there, this ain’t. No such show could end its two hours with a rapt audience audibly gasping as the final convolutions of the plot unravel to an unexpected and deeply satisfying end. And this one achieves that happy state perfectly.

Harris’s play’s the kind they don’t make any more, set in the 1980s (and un-updatable because of some very specific tricks with the kind of telephone you used to plug into the wall). It’s from the end of the era when the West End and weekly reps both were full of plays with Murder in the title. A detective, a playwright and a man who’s brought them together in his flat under false pretences. Three superb performances from Miles Gallant as Stone, Gary Webster as the copper, Hallett, and Charlotte Hunter as, the playwright, Dee. A script and direction that takes their confident time to let you know who these people are and why they’re there, and more importantly why they think they’re there.

And, although the clues are liberally sprinkled throughout, there are turns you don’t see coming towards you and an ending that makes perfect sense the second it surprises you. Special mention to Miles Gallant who carries an astounding amount of dialogue fluently, perfectly encapsulating the kind of man no-one notices until, too late, they realise just how sinister he is. 

Charlotte Hunter and Gary Webster, are also pitch perfect in creating a confident female writer who’s vulnerable under the surface and a smug, arrogant copper never quite grasping that he’s out of his depth. And, since Gallant gets most of the talk, it’s especially worth watching them both reacting as they begin to understand, or think they do, what’s going on around them. 

Entirely gripping for an audience that sits back and waits for the play to reveal itself. Wish they hadn’t stopped making them like this.

Read writer Richard Harris’ reflections on writing his sensational thriller here 

THE BUSINESS OF MURDER by Richard Harris

Directed by Nick Bromley

Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick   

23 October to 23 November 2024

Box Office: https://tabard.org.uk/whats-on/the-business-of-murder/

David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.