HOLSWORTHY Amateur Theatrical Society (HATS) are currently presenting an intriguing whodunit with twists of plot and surprises which keep the audience guessing to the end, writes Christine Williams.

‘Tell-Tale Murder’ by Philip Weathers is set in the 1950s in an isolated house on the Cornish coast, originally built for smugglers with hiding places under the floor and not far from an old mine shaft. Since her husband disappeared seventeen years ago Jane Mannion has lived a secluded life in this house with her two children, David and Vanessa, and tended by an odd old servant called Ellen.

The locals believe Jane poisoned her husband especially since her mother was a suspected poisoner. The play opens when Bentley Richmond, a lawyer recently returned from South Africa, arrives and is reunited with his daughter Maureen, a doctor and David’s fiancée.

Her father wished to meet David and check on his future son-in-law’s family history. Soon after, a body is found in the disused mine shaft and is identified by Jane as her husband’s corpse.

The plot thickens as the lawyer, a firm believer in hereditary, sets about investigating whether this family is a suitable one for his daughter to marry into.

Diane Sluggett as Jane Mannion gives a sterling performance as an embittered middle-aged woman who was maltreated by her husband and in the flashback scenes skilfully transforms herself into a passionate younger woman. She is superb towards the end as the tragic, lonely woman, abandoned by her family, forced to live in a house she can never leave.

Lesley Wonnacott plays the mysterious servant Ellen with a dark secret, at times a comic figure whose glances convey more than a thousand words. John Dixon and Beck Gear are well cast as David and Maureen, the young couple who are very much in love but whose future together is tested to extreme.

Elizabeth Hobbs makes an impressive HATS debut as Jane’s sad and sensitive 17-year-old daughter Vanessa who loves her mother but is frightened by her and longs to escape. Grant Fulcher once again proves himself a fine actor as the lawyer’s chauffeur Howell who in the flashback scenes turns out to be the family’s handyman and Jane’s lover.

The play is directed by Ken Tyrell, his 13th production for HATS, and he also appears as Jane’s thoroughly unpleasant vanished husband who materialises in the flashback scenes.

Congratulations were given to Mike Wonnacott and John Dixon for creating a superb set, a 1950s drawing room with a grandfather clock with supposedly provides the tick-tock marking the passage of time between the scenes.

Lighting and sound are by Tony Prouse, Ron Lester and Sarah Leach, continuity and stage manager by Mary Osbourne, props by Annette Dennis and Sue Painter.

The play continues each evening at 7.30pm until Saturday, September 14, and tickets can be obtained by visiting the theatre Box Office between 10am and 3pm or by phoning 01409 253826.