A Black Comedy by
Norman Robbins
Wednesday 13th to Saturday 16th April 2005
In the Lovecraft Room of "Usher", his
great country house, aging horror star Romney Marsh has gathered together a
group of theatre people, ostensibly for a read through of a new play. When the
last of his guests has arrived, however, Romney instructs the gatehouse keeper
to let loose the guard dogs in the grounds. With a moat full of piranha fish,
Romney is confident that his weekend guests are caught like rats in a trap. It
seems that someone has been sending him newspaper cuttings about the suicide
thirty years ago of Mabel Monk, an actress with whom Romney had an affair, and
he intends to find out who is responsible. But before he can, Tanya, one of the
actresses, is found with her throat cut, and shortly afterwards Romney himself
dies, poisoned by one of his own chocolates. Marooned in the house, with thick
fog swirling outside, the other guests soon realise that the murderer must have
some connection with the deceased Mabel Monk, and as the action progresses, the
finger of suspicion points at each of them in turn, until the final truth is
revealed, with fatal consequences.
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