The risk of a successful crime story is that exponentially more people know whodunnit. The Mousetrap and 2:22: A Ghost Story plead with theatregoers to keep the secret. Adapting for the stage Kate Summerscale’s 2008 bestseller, which has also been serialised for ITV, Alexandra Wood’s problem is that millions already know The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’s solution to the mystery of the murder of a three-year-old in Wiltshire.
Wood ingeniously remedies this by intricately plaiting timelines so that even clued-up viewers can be confused about what happens next or possibly before. In 1881, dejected ex-Metropolitan police detective Jonathan Whicher visits Fulham prison to question Constance Kent about the 1860 case that finished his reputation. Beautifully, with fleeting changes of voice, posture and lighting (by Katy Morison), characters move between conversations 20 years apart.
