Deadly Game by David Foley. UK premiere tour.

On a rainy night in Truro the audience file in to a dimly lit auditorium. The curtains open onto a bright, very smart set – a stylish Manhattan apartment, boldly coloured in maroon and orange with a chrome and glass galley kitchen to one side.

A young man enters from what must be the bedroom, wearing only a bath towel, and the row of middle-aged ladies behind me snigger and giggle, shoving each other and mumbling their approval.

He moves around the apartment with confident ease, as though this is his place but, when a woman comes out of the bedroom in a robe, their exchange is perplexing.

Not a couple at all, Camille (Karen Drury), a wealthy and successful jewellery designer, has brought this young man home from a party, and admits to a weakness for waiters with charm. She tries to pay him off but he won’t take the money and he won’t leave. His earlier confidence is replaced by what seems to be offended sensitivity, but soon becomes smug arrogance as he sits back in her armchair and refuses to move.

Strong, clever Camille will not allow herself to be outwitted by a scheming, ambitious waiter. He gets dressed and the ladies behind me are delighted by a glimpse of his naked backside as he drops the towel from underneath a shirt and tuxedo. We are denied a full revelation for now.

Camille calls her security guard, Ted (Steven Pinder) but getting rid of Billy (Kevin Pallister) isn’t so easy. There are attacks and counter-attacks, feints and dodges. Ted is as defeated as Camille is determined, but she seems to have met her match in Billy. The verbal sparring between the two seems at first to be in her favour - it’s her apartment; she’s wealthy and well-known and he’s an unscrupulous gigolo. Or is he? It’s not clear what he wants from her. He’s a game player and each seeks to outmanoeuvre the other.

Billy does have revelations for Camille, taking her back to the secrets of her past, manipulating her, toying with her, certain of his success. There are moments that are sometimes touching, sometimes macabre. The dialogue is always intelligent, often witty, and David Foley’s well-crafted script and intricate and clever plot has plenty of surprises.

Pinder is excellent as down-on-his-luck Ted, sometimes tough, sometimes desperate. Pallister plays Billy as cocksure and there are one or two missed opportunities where he could be more sinister. Drury over-projects but, as Camille, she maintains audience sympathy, is always likeable and rarely vulnerable.

This play fully engages our attention throughout. It is suspenseful, ironic and impressive watching the power shift from one character to another and it’s never clear which way it’s going to go.

CLOSING THE RING. Dir Richard Attenborough. 2007

A film about promises and secrets, this love story begins in1941 in Branagan, Michigan, takes us to Belfast during World War II, and during the ‘troubles’ in 1991, and completes the circle back in the US. Attenborough’s direction allows the audience to be active throughout, working out what is happening, calculating back to what must have happened earlier, and putting pieces of the puzzle together.

Three friends all love Ethel Ann (Mischa Barton) although why they all love her is not clear. She’s very lovely to look at, but the script doesn’t give clues as to what makes her so exceptional that they love her for as long as they live. Her desirability is central to the story; the audience needs to feel as passionate about Ethel Ann as do Teddy, Jack and Chuck.

Ethel-Anne chooses Teddy (Stephen Amell) and the two secretly marry because Teddy is believed to be not good enough for Ethel Ann. Say what? Teddy is handsome, polite, well-spoken, hard-working and decent. He’s building her a huge house on his own land with his bare hands; how much more proof do we need of his righteousness? Shortly after the wedding the three friends go off to war in Europe but, before they leave, Teddy selects Chuck to ‘look after’ Ethel Ann if he should die. Horribly, he does, and Chuck returns to fulfill his promise.

Fast forward to 1991 and the mature Ethel Ann is played by Shirley MacLaine who conveys a rather brittle sophistication and cynicism alongside a private, yet apparent, emotional depth. She is remote from, and uncommunicative and unpleasant towards her daughter, Marie (Neve Campbell). Marie becomes increasingly frantic at not getting answers and turns to Jack (Christopher Plummer) for help, but no-one will tell her the truth. Ethel Ann’s buried pain needs to be excavated and it takes a stranger on the other side of the world to expose the truth.

On Black Mountain Michael (Pete Postlethwaite) spends his days digging for relics of the plane crash which he witnessed fifty years earlier. He’s joined by Jimmy (Martin McCann), a lively and enthusiastic lad who lives with his grandmother (Brenda Fricker). These are solid, believable characters and scenes set in Northern Ireland are particularly enjoyable with cracking dialogue, humour and fine performances throughout. Sinister IRA figures provide acute tension and dark realism.

Ebullient and somewhat naïve Jimmy makes a nice contrast with world-weary Ethel Ann and troubled Michael. Not yet wounded, all his emotions out in the open, he is the catalyst who releases Michael from his lifelong quest, and Ethel Ann from her locked-in grief so that healing can begin and reconciliation is made possible.

Apart from the unlikely Barton-MacLaine transition and expecting an audience to believe that gorgeous, gentlemanly Teddy is not perfect marriage material, this is a tender, moving film.