Murderous Liaisons at Theatre Royal, Nottingham Review

Reviewed by Louise Edwards

This week, Murderous Liaisons by Tabs Productions is being performed at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal as part of the Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season 2023 (now in its 36th year!).

Written by Brian Clements, aka the king of thrillers, Murderous Liaisons (or Inside Job) is set in a Spanish Villa near Marbella in the 1980s. The villa is a rental home for Suzy and Alex a married couple.

We meet the glamorous Suzy (played by Lara Lemon) in the villa as she is waiting for her new love interest Larry (played by Pavan Maru). He arrives and it is clear why he has accepted her invitation.

She offers him a drink before revealing to him the real reason she has invited him around is that she has heard he is a convict on the run from England. She wants him to help her escape her marriage from her husband who drinks heavily and has hit her, by breaking into her husband’s safe located in the villa and stealing £60.000 of diamonds and gun contained in it. She plans that they will then go to Rio together for a few weeks of fun before splitting the money.

The plan is that she will be away that night visiting friends and her husband will be home alone. He will likely have taken sleeping tablets and not hear anything whilst Larry comes in the back door which Suzy will leave open, to do the deed. Larry agrees to do this, despite denying that he is the convict on the run that Suzy claims, saying that getting into the safe will be easy for him to break into.

That night we see Larry break into the safe and steal the gun and diamonds. However, he is disturbed by Alex who has come downstairs to get his sleeping tablets out of a drawer in the living room. As Alex comes towards him with a fire poker, Larry’s instinct is to shoot the gun without warning at Alex straight to his chest leaving him dead on the floor. Larry then cold-heartedly gets to work wrapping up the diamonds to make a quick exit.

However unbeknown to Larry the gun is only armed with blanks and Alex jumps up and accosts Larry wanting to know what he is doing. Swiftly loading the gun with real bullets he turns the tables leaving Larry vulnerable and at his mercy. Alex tells him the diamonds he has stolen are worthless and he won’t get much money for them.

Larry continues to play the part of opportunistic thief but Alex says he thinks there is more to him and that to shoot him like he did means that he has done this before. He tells Larry he wants him to help with a plot to kill his wife, Suzy, who he knows is not faithful to him, and claim on her life insurance policy. He will then split the money – £50,000 each with him. Larry agrees.

Without giving away too much more about the plot the story continues with lots more twists and turns as Suzy has another attempt on her life from another party and more secrets and closely guarded information is revealed.

Directed by Karen Henson (herself also an actress with the same company) and set design by Conal Walsh this production is a must-watch for fans of the thriller genre. My husband guessed the ending almost correctly but it is edge of the seat action and gives you something to think about. A thoroughly enjoyable fantastic evening at the theatre!

The play is around 90 minutes including intervals and each half is split into three scenes. Between these scenes the curtains fall and the audience is plunged into darkness. As the curtain rises the scene is the same but the time has moved on.

Rating: 4/5

Tickets cost from £16.50 (booking fees may apply).
Murderous Liaisons is at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham until Saturday 17 June 2023, for more information or to book tickets visit https://trch.co.uk/whats-on/murderous-liaisons/ or call the box office on 0115 989 5555.
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall, Theatre Square, Nottingham, NG1 5ND