It is September  , the children are back at school, temperatures are falling and Derby Theatre has a scorching world premier  tour from leading contemporary playwright Torben Betts to open the autumn  season.

A strong cast of television veterans includes  Jason Durr (Heartbeat, Casualty) as  Jonny the Cyclpos, Susie Blake ( Coronation Street) as Shirley, Max Bowden, ( Ben Mitchell in EastEnders) as  Paul , and Katie McGlynn (Waterloo Road, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks) as Lisa

Performed by the Original theatre company , Murder at Midnight  is a cross-genre piece incorporating, crime, comedy, thriller, murder mystery and madcap farce set on  New Year’s Eve in a quiet corner of Kent.  There is a killer on the loose. Within are gangster  Jonny ‘ Cyclops’,   his glamorous girlfriend Lisa , his emotionally volatile   sidekick Trainwreck, his clairvoyant mum—who’s seeing things, her very skittish foreign born  carer, plus an undercover detective, – and a burglar dressed as a clown. That is quite some New Years Eve gathering.

A safe full of cash and drugs, a stash of deadly weapons, and one unsolved murder spice the evening up.

One house. Seven suspects and a Murder at Midnight…

Philip Franks’ direction is pacy, brisk and energetic. The two hour long halves never outstay their welcome. A split-level single set ( by Colin Falconer, lighting by Jason Taylor) incorporating an open plan lounge/kitchen, study, bedroom and back alley works well, Sound by Max Paapenheim majors on Jonny’s favourite artist Robbie Williams and mercifully eschews Coldplay, the latter of whom are the butt of a very funny series of running gags.

After the success of Invincible, Caroline’s Kitchen, and Murder in the Dark this is Betts’s fourth play at Derby. It is also his best. It borrows from Jacobean revenge drama in the mould of Webster or Middleton.  Director Franks has described it as Feydeau meets Tarantino which is particularly apposite for a modern audience.

The dialogue is snappy . The one -liners are whiplash fast and laugh out loud funny. I dare you to wear a Coldplay t shirt to the show. The body count is high, the stage drenched in blood for the brilliant finale. It isn’t just people who meet their maker- Rocjk DJ tragically is despatched to the great kennels in the sky too, where hopefully he will be better fed.

The principal cast are terrific. Betts has created a classic villain in Cyclops for Jason Durr to inhabit. Lisa his girlfriend, sassily played by McGlynn is much more than a dumb blonde.  Susie Blake plays the psychotic mother with a wicked gleam in her eye, sometime demotic villainess in a winceyette nightie, sometime forgetful granny.

Betts is a master at teasing wit the motivations for his character’s actions, sometimes we find out, sometimes we don’t. He never seeks to explain why some people like Coldplay.

Cast also includes Callum Balmforth, Peter Moreton, Iryna Poplavska, Bella Farr and Andy McLeod.

Murder at Midnight plays until  Sat 13^th before continuing on nationwide tour at Birmingham, Cheltenham, Guildford, Malvern, Southend, York, Eastbourne, Cardiff, Fareham, and Bromley and in 2026  Salford, Blackpool, Ipswich, Northampton, New Brighton, Coventry, Salisbury, Bath and Darlington, with further dates to be announced.