Dead Funny Season - Devonshire Park Theatre

AUDIENCES are much more adventurous about film – they will go and see something they haven't seen before or is new. I wish it was more like that in the theatre.”

As artistic director of Brighton-based Talking Scarlet Productions, Patric Kearns is doing his best to encourage audiences to take a bit of a risk – albeit in the well-loved genre of the thriller.

“The thriller is a very popular genre, but hopefully Talking Scarlet doesn’t do the plays that everyone else does,” he says, pointing to the company's other recent success with Terence Rattigan's lesser known In Praise Of Love and their first production My Mother Said I Never Should back in 2001.

For their third summer thriller season at Eastbourne's Devonshire Park Theatre, Kearns has injected a vein of humour into the programme, mixing a comedy with two very different thrillers.

“It was a question of finding the right three plays," says Kearns. “I wanted plays that would fit together and complement each other, but wouldn’t be too similar.”

His starting point was the classic Agatha Christie Miss Marple play A Murder Is Announced. “I was confident that would sell well as it is a really good Agatha Christie," says Kearns.

"It has a big cast of 12. I don’t think people often get the opportunity to see drama with big casts on stage.”

The second thriller, which opens the season, is Brian Clemens’s dark psychological drama The Devil At Midnight, which is currently on a national tour.

But the comedy proved to be the hardest nut to crack, with Kearns reading lots of scripts until he found a suitable companion to the two thrillers.

“There are villains in the comedy, but it is all tongue-in-cheek,” says Kearns.

Unlike previous rep seasons at the Devonshire Park Theatre, the three plays will feature different casts, as all are going on national tours after their Eastbourne appearances.

However Kearns said: “Both The Widow and Double Death [coming to Eastbourne in July] have cast members from The Devil At Midnight and A Murder Is Announced.”

Kearns is directing the majority of the season, with Phil Stewart taking the reins for the Christie play and Double Death.

The season in full

The Devil At Midnight Tuesday, June 3, to Saturday, June 7

BAFTA-Award-winning playwright Brian Clemens’ psychological thriller follows the story of disturbed young woman Nikki who is visited in her dreams by a devil.

It is up to psychoanalyst Liz Burns to find out the truth of what has been happening to her client.

Stars Andrew Paul from The Bill, Emmerdale’s Corrine Wicks, Charlotte Chinn and Chris Sheridan.

Shady Business Tuesday, June 10, to Saturday, June 14

PROVIDING the funny side to the season, this lesser-known gangster comedy has been penned by Don’t Dress For Dinner’s Robin Hawdon. Stars Coronation Street’s Scott Wright, David Callister from The Bill and Katy Dean.

Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced Tuesday, June 16, to Saturday, June 21

A CLASSIC country house mystery from the pen of the Mistress Of Suspense, as an announcement in the local newspaper announces the time and place of a murder. It’s up to Miss Marple to uncover the murderer. Stars former EastEnder Louise Jameson, Jennifer Biddall from Hollyoaks and Philip Stewart.

All shows start 7.45pm, 2.30pm Wed and Sat, tickets from £14.50. Tickets for full season available for £17 Other Talking Scarlet shows The Widow: Tuesday, July 22, to Saturday, July 26.

Double Death: Tuesday, July 29, to Saturday, August 23, not Sunday or Monday.