New year, and much musing and reviewsing to look forward to for this Honorary Manc. Entering my 24th year as a resident in this beautiful little city, and more in love with it than ever, let’s kick-start 2024 with a dark and dastardly thriller at the theatre.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I’ll begin…

Well straightaway, I’m itching to tell you more.

Well go on then!

I hear you cry.

Well I can’t. Even the programme strictly forbids any spoilers.

And to be honest, I’m fully onboard. Because to enjoy Murder In The Dark from a position of naivety and ignorance is to enjoy it in its finest form.

A spine-chilling ghost story, turned psychological thriller starring TV and stage favourites Tom Chambers (Holby City, Casualty, Waterloo Road, Father Brown and Strictly Come Dancing champion) and Susie Blake (Victoria Wood’s As Seen on TV).
What happens when the lights go out?

It’s New Year’s Eve, when a car crash on a deserted road brings famous but troubled singer Danny Sierra and his dysfunctional family to an isolated holiday cottage in rural England.

From the moment they arrive, a sequence of inexplicable events begin to occur… and then the lights go out… As the tension rises and deeply buried secrets come to light, you’ll find nothing is quite as it seems.

The Lowry

So far so intriguing.

Throw in the following trigger warnings –Strobes & Flashing lights, Haze, Loud Noises, Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Depictions of Murder & Suicide, Violence, Mentions of Child Abuse, Strong Language – and we have ourselves a charming Tuesday night of theatre on a wet and windy Quays.

You might find my words sarcastic and dismissive, but those who know me will know that I’m deadly serious.

I love a bit of murder, mystery, death, doom and gloom in my cultural pursuits. Throw in a dose of dark humour and I’m in my element.

Written by Torben Betts and Directed by Philip Franks, Murder In The Dark brings us many classic horror/thriller tropes – mysterious stranger, old house, desolate location, familial tensions and unresolved issues, a night time setting, a mysterious well (oh yes), an abundance of bad weather…throw in some dodgy electrics and a lack of wifi and there’s all the classic ingredients for some secret spilling, and dastardly deeds.

There were plenty of jump-scares to torment the senses. Every bang, shadow, crackle and indeed pop had the audience on the edge of those lovely purple theatre seats. Indeed both myself and those around me were on edge for some time when part of the set spookily moved to reveal a mysterious opening in the wall of the old house.

Who or what was about to appear and what could it all mean?! Well it just meant that the set had shifted a little by accident, with somebody quietly pushing it back in place later down the line. But we were there for it, such was the state of our nerves, as the cast and crew did their spooky stuff.

And their stuff was sharp, tongue in cheek, bitingly funny, a bit sweary and often gave classic farce.

Until it wasn’t. And it didn’t.

With a definite homage to The Ring and a shocking ending that feels straight out of the pages of the Inside Number 9 handbook of plot twists and turns, Murder In The Dark takes the classic thriller tropes of yesteryear (think Agatha Christie) and turns them on their head when you least expect it.

Kudos to all the cast, but with special mention to the great, Susie Blake whose raspy (that must hurt) depiction of the older lady, (I won’t name her as I can’t recall whether that will reveal anything and basically I’m scared), walking a delightful line between infuriatingly dotty and dangerously unsettling (mushroom soup anyone), stealing each scene with one-liners and creating many a laugh out loud moment to cut the tension.

It’s January, it’s horrible outside and we get about 5 minutes of daylight every day. So lighten the mood, why don’t you, and go be a witness to Murder In the Dark at the Lowry, Salford.

On until this Saturday 27 January, head to https://thelowry.com/whats-on/murder-in-the-dark/

Sleep well.