IF anyone wondered why there was an extra degree of realism to Alex Dennison’s anguish over his intended’s demise then there was indeed a simple explanation.

For Robert Daws (Dennison) is married in real life to his stage fiancée Monica Welles (Amy Robbins) hence that extra tear when it transpires she’s just fallen eight storeys onto some profoundly unforgiving concrete.

This play by Richard Levinson and William Link is pure Agatha Christie and there’s no doubt that the old girl herself would have approved.

True to the genre, the main protagonists are thrown together – this time in the rehearsal room of a theatre – where they are mercilessly grilled by the distraught Dennison who has brought them there on the pretext of introducing a new play.

And it is in this environment that The Classic Thriller Theatre Company’s shameless milking of every Christie cliché comes into its own.

True to tradition, the red herrings flip and flop about in abundance as Dennison casts his net, but that doesn’t stop us smugly thinking we’ve solved the mystery by the time the interval comes round.

Of course, we’re hopelessly wrong, because the writers make sure that we amateur sleuths are well and truly thrown off the scent.

There are some exquisite if slightly parodied portrayals of life in Luvvie Land, particularly from Susan Penhaligon (Bella Lamb), Karen Daniels (Lucy Dixon) and the gloriously predatory David Mathews (Robert Duncan) who circles the doomed Monica like a reef shark checking out the human contents of a life raft.

Director Roy Marsden has undoubtedly captured every nuance of the dressing gown and slippers brand of murder mystery, which appeals so much to those of us bored and wearied by the endless blood and explosions that pass for current dramatic expression.

Rehearsal for Murder runs until Saturday (January 30).

John Phillpott