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 | The Business Of Murder Director: Norman Caddick Arts Theatre, Season Closed Norman Caddick's production of prolific playwright Richard Harris' psychological thriller is urbane, mildly humorous, and satisfyingly entertaining. Caddick's production appears somewhat noir with its lustily murderous content, shady characters, and suave suits veiling very agreeable cardigans. But 'The Business Of Murder' contains much more layering and obfuscating intrigue than that of mere apparel, with the larger portion of its volume utilised for audience deception. The narrative plays out entirely in the modest flat of an apparently generic tie-wearing and optically-deficient modern chap named Stone (Paul Davies). A detective named Hallett (Christopher Strain) has come to ask Stone about his son, who is involved drug dealing. They soon choose to postpone their meeting until later in the evening when the son will supposedly be present. A little later, popular television playwright Dee (Georgia Dodd) arrives to visit Stone's wife to talk about a mutual interest in the business of fictional murder. But when the shrewd and somewhat menacing Stone skews the conversation toward real murder it becomes evident that his motives for invitation are quite different from those initially communicated. This particular conversation makes for delightful consumption, as we see a gradual inversion of authority from the egotistical and dominating Dee to the seemingly pathetic Stone who, as becomes clear, has a remarkable talent for deceptive discourse. Paul Davies is wonderfully cast as the clever, sinister, and disgruntled hermit, conveying Stone's dual physical feebleness and intellectual and rhetorical aptness to such a fine balance that his villain is both plausible and fascinating. Georgia Dodd and Christopher Strain are also terrific, but, appropriately, not so brilliant as to detract from Davies' presence. The consistently exceptional dialogue constitutes the play's crux, and the convoluted discussions allow for justifiable and appropriately substantial musings on the social semantics of murder, in terms of both the literal act and its fictional representation. The proposition that murder is a normal and rational act is played off against the contrary notion that it is always the result of irrational or insane desires. No clear conclusion is reached, but Harris' script does its best to complicate the dilemma, throwing in all sorts of actions and ideas which contradict the already perplexing dichotomy. 'The Business Of Murder' is a discreetly entertaining and wonderfully well-written play that deserves to be seen.  | |
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