REVIEW
✭✭✭✭✭ 5/5
DANGEROUS OBSESSION
By N.J. CRISP
UK Tour autumn 2019
15th - 19th October 2019
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
✭✭✭✭✭ 5/5
DANGEROUS OBSESSION
By N.J. CRISP
UK Tour autumn 2019
15th - 19th October 2019
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
“IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL NOT MOVE... DO YOU HEAR ME? DO YOU?”
I wasn't familiar with the author N.J.Crisp but I am of the generation that remembers well some of the television serials that he wrote back in the 1960's and 1970's. Notably , Dixon of Dock Green, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Secret Army and Colditz. A former RAF pilot in the Second World War he became a prolific writer of short stories, novels and T V dramas. He also wrote plays and Dangerous Obsession is his most famous. It has been performed all over the world and it reflects his talent for engaging dialogue, tense atmosphere and great plotting.
The play was first performed in 1987 and is set during that time in the home of a financially successful couple. Set in a luxurious conservatory on a sunny, late afternoon the play opens with the character of Sally Driscoll, perfectly played by Angie Smith, enjoying her leisured life after a swim in her garden pool. However, her contented pottering is interrupted by a visitor, excellently played by Michael Sherwin. And here the story begins...
The only other character we meet is Sally's husband, Mark, a businessman who arrives home after a hard week at work ready to enjoy his weekend. Mark is rather put out with his unexpected guest but British politeness prevent the couple telling their uninvited visitor, Mr Barrett, to leave. Mark, very effectively played by Mark Huckett, encapsulates the "yuppie" of the times. Again, I shall say very little beyond the fact that the character certainly doesn't get the relaxing evening he bargained for.
I am not going to give away very much at all in this review as the play is best enjoyed with the elements of discomfort, tension, suspense, twists and revelations which are embedded in the performance. By the end I was peeping between my fingers as I felt so nervous with what was happening on stage.
It is to the great credit of the writing, actors and production that this play grips to the end. There is no deep message or any unexplored insights into the human condition in this play but this is a very entertaining and very British slice of theatre. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.
Review: Vanessa Osborn
Tickets: www.southendtheatres.org.uk
The play was first performed in 1987 and is set during that time in the home of a financially successful couple. Set in a luxurious conservatory on a sunny, late afternoon the play opens with the character of Sally Driscoll, perfectly played by Angie Smith, enjoying her leisured life after a swim in her garden pool. However, her contented pottering is interrupted by a visitor, excellently played by Michael Sherwin. And here the story begins...
The only other character we meet is Sally's husband, Mark, a businessman who arrives home after a hard week at work ready to enjoy his weekend. Mark is rather put out with his unexpected guest but British politeness prevent the couple telling their uninvited visitor, Mr Barrett, to leave. Mark, very effectively played by Mark Huckett, encapsulates the "yuppie" of the times. Again, I shall say very little beyond the fact that the character certainly doesn't get the relaxing evening he bargained for.
I am not going to give away very much at all in this review as the play is best enjoyed with the elements of discomfort, tension, suspense, twists and revelations which are embedded in the performance. By the end I was peeping between my fingers as I felt so nervous with what was happening on stage.
It is to the great credit of the writing, actors and production that this play grips to the end. There is no deep message or any unexplored insights into the human condition in this play but this is a very entertaining and very British slice of theatre. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.
Review: Vanessa Osborn
Tickets: www.southendtheatres.org.uk
Having recently presented a critically acclaimed UK tour and West End Run of Anthony Horowitz’s psychological thriller Mindgame, Angela Browne Ltd are proud to announce a brand new tour of N.J. Crisp’s classic thriller Dangerous Obsession - direct from the Nottingham Theatre Royal Classic Thriller season.
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A sunny afternoon… Sally Driscoll waters the plants in the conservatory of her luxurious home.
It's a peaceful scene... until John Barrett unexpectedly appears - and he’s not selling double glazing. What did happen in Torquay? Will Sally and husband Mark ever feel safe in their own home again?
Dangerously obsessed, Barrett strips away the conflicting secrets of the Driscoll’s apparently perfect lives until nothing is left in this compulsive psycho-thriller by a master of the genre.
Norman James Crisp, known as a writer only by his initials and surname, N. J. Crisp, was a prolific British television writer, dramatist and novelist.
In the sixties after writing some single dramas, Crisp moved to writing for serials and turned out scripts for many BBC series including Compact, R3, Dixon of Dock Green, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Colditz and Secret Army.
In 1968, he co-created The Expert, a serial about a forensic scientist, with Gerard Glaister, the Producer. In 1972 the pair repeated the act with the boardroom drama The Brothers.
His 1996 play That Good Night starred Donald Sinden, Nigel Davenport, Lucy Fleming, Patrick Ryecart and Julie-Kate Olivier and was directed by Edward Hall.
Crisp's 1987 psychological thriller Dangerous Obsession was filmed in 1999 as Darkness Falls and starred Ray Winstone, Tim Dutton and Sherilyn Fenn.
.
A sunny afternoon… Sally Driscoll waters the plants in the conservatory of her luxurious home.
It's a peaceful scene... until John Barrett unexpectedly appears - and he’s not selling double glazing. What did happen in Torquay? Will Sally and husband Mark ever feel safe in their own home again?
Dangerously obsessed, Barrett strips away the conflicting secrets of the Driscoll’s apparently perfect lives until nothing is left in this compulsive psycho-thriller by a master of the genre.
Norman James Crisp, known as a writer only by his initials and surname, N. J. Crisp, was a prolific British television writer, dramatist and novelist.
In the sixties after writing some single dramas, Crisp moved to writing for serials and turned out scripts for many BBC series including Compact, R3, Dixon of Dock Green, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Colditz and Secret Army.
In 1968, he co-created The Expert, a serial about a forensic scientist, with Gerard Glaister, the Producer. In 1972 the pair repeated the act with the boardroom drama The Brothers.
His 1996 play That Good Night starred Donald Sinden, Nigel Davenport, Lucy Fleming, Patrick Ryecart and Julie-Kate Olivier and was directed by Edward Hall.
Crisp's 1987 psychological thriller Dangerous Obsession was filmed in 1999 as Darkness Falls and starred Ray Winstone, Tim Dutton and Sherilyn Fenn.