Broken Legs Blog

“The Business of Murder”, the final instalment of this year’s Classic Thriller Season at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, is a deceptively simple tale of one man’s quest for revenge, wrapped up in something that feels a lot more complicated, and draws the audience in with multiple puzzles and questions that we can expect answers to in the second act. Written by Richard Harris, and directed by Karen Henson, the story focuses on Mr Stone (David Gilbrook), who is a mystery in himself. In the opening scene, he summons John Goodrum’s Inspector Hallett to his apartment, with plans to grass on his drug dealing son. The next scene sees him meet with famous crime writer Dee (Sarah Wynne Kordas), who has agreed to provide some feedback on a script written by Mr Stone’s sick wife. Yet, the opening scene reminds us that Mr Stone has no wife. The second scene informs us that Mr Stone has no children. Something is amiss here.

The first act provides an interesting set up. The most fascinating moments come when Stone is alone, when he is able to drop his act and sets about meticulously planning his revenge, following a list of carefully crafted instructions, and moving props around Conal Walsh’s superbly designed set. Gilbrook is alone on stage for a lengthy amount of time. He makes phone calls, he wipes away fingerprints, and he continuously takes paranoid peeks out of the window. It is a baffling scene, but intriguing nonetheless, and made all the more enticing by the knowledge that we will get answers to all of our questions later in the play.

Those answers indeed come in the second act, and the resolution is mostly satisfactory. The method in which those answers are delivered is where the play struggles. The second act gets bogged down in having to diligently explain (and sometimes over-explain) everything we have previously seen. We are spoon-fed every single nugget of information in a scene that drags on and ultimately becomes fairly tedious. Many of the explanations are worked out by the audience prior to the answers being spelled out for us. Any twists are foreshadowed in such a way that they are not shocking. And, just in case the exposition hasn’t bashed us over the head enough, the final moments of the play feature Gilbrook providing us with a full recap of everything we have already been told.

Thankfully, the characters are enjoyable to watch and well acted. Kordas and Gilbrook in particular share an excellent chemistry onstage, their back-and-forth in the opening act providing some funny and insightful moments, all underlined with an edge of tension, as the audience begin to question Stone’s true motives for leading the famous writer to his apartment. Goodrum was born to play a detective, and his cynicism provides some much-needed humour throughout. When he begins to realise the scale of what Mr Stone has planned, Goodrum’s entire demeanour changes, becoming more jumpy, confrontational and even frightened – it is an excellent way to turn the drama up a notch, and introduce an extra burst of energy to proceedings.

Gilbrook is an unlikely protagonist, presenting the figure of a fairly bland man hiding huge secrets, which is one of the great appeals of this play. He is not particularly threatening, and gives the impression of someone who is fairly harmless – the promise of his becoming something nastier in act two is what entices the audience back for more. Unfortunately, he doesn’t quite live up to the emotional beats required of the story. The play becomes ever more darker as it goes on, and yet there is an insincerity to the acting that means we struggle to entirely buy the backstory of the three characters. Perhaps it is because we have learnt not to trust Stone from his shenanigans in the opening act, that when we finally learn the truth, we still doubt it.

Overall, the play has an interesting set-up, and does deliver all the answers that one could want – there are certainly no complaints there. Sometimes the best stories are those that feel convoluted, and yet have a simple explanation at the end, and if that is what you are looking for, then this play is a winner. It struggles in the fact that the revelations are not particularly enjoyable to watch. The second act feels overly drawn out, Stone is reduced to a moustache-twirling Bond villain, and everything is just a little… boring.

Nonetheless, “The Business of Murder” rounds off another successful season of thrillers for Tabs Productions. To produce an entirely new show every week is a marvellous feat, and they certainly deserve congratulations for that, livening up the fairly quiet summer months when most regional theatres go dark. Tabs Productions will be back next summer for another set of thrillers, and I look forward to seeing what exciting and macabre tales they bring to the stage next year.

Tom Morley, August 2025

For more information on how I decide on star ratings, see here: Star ratings – Broken Legs Blog

Review Round-up:

Elemental Theatre Company: The Business of Murder – 3 stars from ETC, who say the show “isn’t the explosive firework one might have hoped for, but nor is it a damp and disappointing sparkler“

East Midlands Theatre: The Business of Murder – A fairly brutal 2 star review from EMT, who say the show is “full of unnecessary exposition and a host of tedious clichés”

Kev Castle Reviews: The Business of Murder – Kev Castle was impressed with the production, calling this show a “bar raiser”, and saying that “Tabs Productions continue to produce classic shows to an exceptional standard” – something I certainly cannot disagree with, the production standards of these shows are incredibly high, and the sets are always wonderful