Political thriller is "absolutely of the moment" - Guildford and Eastbourne dates

Dead Lies is at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, from June 7-11 and then the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne from June 14-18.

From number-one best-selling crime novelist Hilary Bonner, it promises a feast of murder, scandal and sexual indiscretion, starring Holby City’s J eremy Edwards.

The action takes place during a fiercely fought election campaign. The story follows Peter George (Edwards), a politician who promises a new kind of politics beyond sleaze and spin.

He is welcomed as a Messiah by the British public and expe cted to restore trust in a broken system. But a shocking secret lies in the past of our country’s hero. As buried truths rise from the ashes, will his rise to power be destroyed by ghosts from another time?

“And the great thing is that it is absolutely now,” says Joe. “It is a really good thriller in the best way that Agatha Christie thrillers are so good in that it is a whydunnit as much as a whodunit but it also has the great advantage that it's set in absolutely contemporary politics that we have now, in the context of Partygate, in the context of the cost of living crisis and of the war in Ukraine. It really speaks to what is happening now almost on a daily basis and we are doing little updates to reflect that.”

The piece was due to open last summer but amid all the Covid uncertainty the decision was taken to wait and to put together a new tour when things improved.

“But I go back with it, I think, to 2018 when another producer said would I look at this script by Hilary. I read it and I thought there was a really good idea in it and the plotting was good and worked and that the idea of a modern political thriller was great but there were vast tracts that didn't work terribly well theatrically. We had a reading of it. And then I sat down to talk about it with Hilary and four hours later I had finished giving her my notes and I thought that was the last time I would see her. But amazingly about ten days later, Hilary came back and said ‘I have rewritten it. Can I send it to you?’

“She was a journalist for a long time and approached it in a really practical way. She loves deadlines and she turned it into something which was immeasurably better, a really good thriller, and it has been wonderful to work with her on it over the last three years. She has done a really fantastic job with this play.”

The cast also includes Alicia Charles (Coronation Street, Holby City) who plays the role of Kate Compton, press secretary to Peter George; Portia Booroff (Doctors, EastEnders) as Peter’s devoted wife Jo George; Claire Dyson fresh from appearing opposite Liam Neeson in Made in Italy as ex-supermodel Stephanie Jones; and making his UK tour deubt is George Verghis as Peter George’s campaign manager James Gillen.