Cast

Synopsis

Act 1 of this ingeniously-structured thriller, Detective Inspector Burton questions actress Celia Wallis about the murder of her husband Martin. Celia is obviously in the clear but Neville Smallwood, the drunken journalist sleeping in her bed, had argued with Martin and the solution seems simple. Act 2 takes place before the murder, and all our expectations, of the characters as well as of the plot, are turned on their heads.

Directors Notes

The distorting of the time frame within a play is not a new idea – in recent years, BLT has presented plays by J. B. Priestley and Alan Ayckbourn which have used the same device. In the case of ‘Silhouette’, Simon Brett changes our view of the order of events in order to transform a fairly standard whodunit into an intriguing play with an unexpected and ironic twist at the end. Whodunits come as two types: the Agatha Christie model, where a collection of possible suspects is paraded before us and we play a game with the author to
try and guess the right one; and the did-he-or-didn’t-he genre best represented by the film “Jagged Edge’ of a few years ago in which there is only one credible suspect. I’ll leave you to decide which one this is. In directing a play for BLT for the first time, one would surely wish for a talented and enthusiastic cast and a backstage team of superb efficiency and commitment. My wish has certainly been granted. Returning to the subject of thriller plays, I think their main aim is to give the audience an evening of diverting and relaxing
enjoyment.

Settle back, relax and enjoy the evening.