The inevitable question for a writer is where do you get your ideas from?  Well – and you’ll have heard this before - from all over the place and very often when you’re not looking for one.  The idea for what I suppose is my most successful play came because, drawn by the sound of a thumping piano, I glanced through the window of an old church hall to see a dozen ladies and one gent having a whale of a time learning to tap dance. The idea for what is known as my “cricket play” came about because I took a break from walking the dog to idly watch the local cricket team just as a bloke was going in at number five and a lady, somewhat the worse for wear, suddenly appeared from the car park and loudly informed him and everyone else that he was a lousy pathetic cheat of a husband and a rotten cricketer to boot.    The Business Of Murder also has its genesis in an actual event but quite a different one – the awful and tragic death of a seven year old boy who was a pupil at the same small primary school as my two children and whose single parent mother I was on nodding terms with at the school gate.  As a parent, I couldn’t begin to imagine how she and indeed her estranged husband were going to cope.  As a writer……yes I know, I know.

So, what is this play about? Well, it’s exactly what it says on the tin….three people with no obvious connection are brought together because each in their own way is concerned with the business of murder.   Business in the sense of habitual occupation, profession, trade…and business in the sense of something that concerns one, something one may meddle with.   To say any more will I think diminish what I hope will be the enjoyment and intrigue of a piece that forms part of a sort of sub-genre known as “the psychological thriller”, meaning – or so I read – that the action is driven by the psychology of its characters, their mental state and therefore their behaviour. ( I would have thought this applies to all plays, be it Run For Your Wife or Long Day’s Journey Into Night but there you go).  Whatever, a Whydunnit rather than a Whodunnit. 

This is the second time I’ve worked at the Tabard with director Nick Bromley – he directed my comedy The Last Laugh and we have developed a very nice working relationship.   He is happy for me to attend rehearsals and make “helpful” suggestions to which he either says good idea or politely advises that I go and have a lie-down and leave it to the grownups - by whom he means the wonderful cast of Charlotte Hunter, Miles Gallant and Gary Webster.  He’s quite right. They do me proud.

This is my fourth play to be produced at The Tabard and as with the previous three I have nothing but praise for the way that Simon and Sarah Reilly go about their business on a very limited budget.  Their commitment to this little theatre is boundless and they deserve all the support they can get.

The Business Of Murder was first performed at the Theatre Royal in Windsor before playing a seven year run in the West End. Richard Harris' thriller/detective television credits include A Touch Of Frost, The Sweeney, The Avengers and The Last Detective. He has written countless scripts for television and devised or co-devised such series as Shoestring and Man In A Suitcase. His television awards include The Writers’ Guild Award For Comedy, The British Television Award and the New York Gold Medal Award for his play Searching For Senor Duende. He has written such stage plays as Stepping Out and Outside Edge, both of which earned The Evening Standard Award.

The Business of Murder

23rd October - 23rd November 2024

By Richard Harris

BOOK TICKETS HERE

The Theatre at the Tabard presents Richard Harris’ acclaimed psychological thriller, The Business of Murder, which enjoyed a successful 7-year run in the West End.

Two people – Dee, a successful but edgy television writer, and Hallett, a cynical CID detective, are separately given a plausible reason to visit the flat of the humourless and seemingly very ordinary Mr Stone.

But why are they really here?  Who is he?  Why has he tricked them here? What does he want from them?  As the plot twists and turns his motive slowly becomes clear. They are all, it would seem, in the same business. The Business Of Murder.