Short story is reworked

THERE’S great good timing to John Goodrum’s modern-day re-imagining of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic The Nightmare Room.

Just as Sherlock Holmes - Conan Doyle’s greatest creation - has been successfully given a modern twist on TV, John has reworked for today’s audiences the Conan Doyle short story The Nightmare Room with his Rumpus Theatre Company.

He brings the production to Worthing’s Connaught Theatre from Tuesday, September 21 to Saturday, September 25.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We did a smaller-scale production a few years ago, but this is a much more elaborate production which is actually opening in Worthing,” John says, “and with the success of the Sherlock Holmes series on TV, it is actually quite apposite.”

Holmes, however, doesn’t feature in The Nightmare Room.

“It’s a wonderfully spooky and unsettling Conan Doyle short story about two men fighting over one woman.

“I have taken quite a few liberties with it, in the same way that the TV series did with Sherlock.

“Instead of having two men fighting over one woman, it’s two women fighting over one man, which is quite fun, just to make it a bit more contemporary and relevant.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The women are old friends and we see them in a lot of flashbacks in many situations back to when they were playing together.

“They have been friends since childhood. One has become a very very successful property developer - Catherine.

“Helen is not so successful, but she has run off with the successful property manager’s film star husband.

“The story is that Catherine, the property developer, is attempting to take her revenge on Helen by kidnapping her and taking her to this room.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rumpus has been going since about 1994-95: “And we have covered all sorts of productions”, John says. “We are particularly interested in contemporary writing, but we have fallen a bit into the habit of doing the more Gothic, thriller-y type things in recent years. They seem to be very popular with audiences.

“We did Charles Dickens’ The Signalman at Worthing last year - and it went very well.”

The Nightmare Room stars Zoie Kennedy (Staff Nurse Meryl Taylor in The Royal) and Blue Merrick (registrar Jenny Reece in Coronation St).

John added: “The Nightmare Room has all the pace, tension and gothic horror of our last production but in a vibrant modern context.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It could be described as a female version of Sleuth with lots of game-playing and waspish exchanges about marital infidelity and revenge – great for fans of television’s Hustle or Silent Witness.”

Tickets on 01903 206206 or visit www.worthingtheatres.co.uk.

Related topics: