The Business of Murder

Richard’s Harris’ The Business of Murder was originally written for television and later adapted for the stage where it had a eight year run in the West End. Despite its success on stage its small-scale television roots are still in evidence in Sharon White’s stylishly modest production for Nash Theatre.

Set in the sitting room of a North London flat in the 60s, Harris’s psychological thriller about murder has enough twists and turns to satisfy any lover of Agatha Christie or Midsommer Murders. The plot involves a copper, John Hallett, his bit-on-the-side TV scriptwriter Dee Redmond, and Stone, a seemingly innocuous middle-aged man.

Revenge is the theme. Stone invites Hallet and Redmond to his home and proceeds to play mind games on them. Has a murder been committed? Is he the perpetrator of a diabolical crime? Harris keeps us guessing until the point of the play, police brutality and TV fictionalisation of real events, is revealed midway through the second act.

All three performers give convincing performances. Rob Harvey is a believable no-nonsense copper who determinedly had his own agenda, Phillipa Dwyer’s portrayal of the insecure and neurotic mistress Dee is assured, while Paul Careless, in the play’s most demanding role, made Stone a dangerous psychopath.

The set and costumes, also by White, were period appropriate with the landline telephone and gabardine raincoats a nice touch, and although the final physical denouement came across as melodramatic, the play still held one’s interest and entertained.

Peter Pinne