The Edge of Darkness
Richmond Theatre, London

Alan Fentiman

Brian Clemens is no stranger to the art of thriller writing with over fifty years screenwriting experience and TV credits including The Avengers and The Professionals. Having cut his teeth within the confines of 38 minute feature screenplays, where he had to write new scripts that utilised old sets, Clemens is adept at shaping new from old in exciting and eventful ways.

Clemens has done just that with this play. A psychological thriller called The Edge of Darkness means you can't help but enter the auditorium with an inkling of what you're going to get. Perhaps a ghostly house set somewhere in the 1900s? The curtain lifts to reveal a ghostly house set somewhere in the 1900s.

Maybe a blundering maid with a west-country accent? 'Good mornang!' And is that a mysterious stranger arriving at the front door? The setup is almost too cliched to bear and yet, what Clemens manages so masterfully is to take this hackneyed horror and craft what is ultimately a very satisfying piece of theatre.

Following the arrival of a new servant, (Jerry Lindop), Max Cranwell (Tony Scannell) and his wife Laura (Liza Goddard) return home with their daughter Emma (Clare McGlinn) who was recently discovered in a hospital having been missing for three years. What with her memory of this period mysteriously missing and with the suspicious activities and interrogation by the new servant (Jerry Lindop), it took less time than many audience members took to turn off their mobile phones for the questions to start piling up.

Flashbacks, eerie lighting effects, daggers, deception and music direct from the CD 'The Best Psychological Thriller Soundtracks In The World Ever Part 12', all assist in scattering suspicion far and wide. Each character gets drawn into the mysterious goings on as all hopes fade of ever working out who the hell is telling the truth about themselves, each other and what happened in the three missing years of Emma's life.

It's a damn good job the detective comes along at the end and explains what,
who, how and why. It meant that I could leave the theatre with a warm glow
of resolution, smiling at how I'd been so cunningly misled, not just by the plot but by what I'd first expected.

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