SALISBURY Playhouse takes a dark turn when a group of people become stranded on a windy, snowy night in the middle of nowhere following a car crash.
Making their way to an isolated farmhouse, they are welcomed by Mrs Bateman (Susie Blake) who is a very efficient but controlled woman. But then, things start to go bump in the night.
Susie Blake came to fame as the continuity announcer in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV and admitted that with Murder in the Dark, "It's a lovely thing to be doing."
She said: "The last horror thing that I did, Snake in the Grass, I enjoyed very much too and that was also a new thing. This is only the second thriller I've ever done and it's interesting because if you do comedy, you don't find it funny because you're telling the story and playing the situation.
“It's the same if you do something scary, so thank goodness I'm not too frightened by it. I'm in two minds about my grandchildren coming to see it but I know that my son is desperate to see it because he loves it when I'm playing slightly dubious characters.
“I've played a few nasty characters but with Mrs. Bateman it is more a case of her being ambiguous. You're not quite sure what she's thinking or what's going on outside the cottage.”
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It is the first time that Susie has worked with the cast although she has worked with director Philip Franks before and said: “You just say 'yes' to anything he asks you to do because he's the best director on the planet.”
Susie believes that horror plays into people’s need to escape from reality, but she doesn’t feel fear in the same way anymore.
She said: “I'm quite old now; I'm 73. So perhaps I'm not as alert to danger as I once was."
Susie believes her character will surprise people who know her from different roles and admitted it was good to play somebody so ambiguous, somebody you can’t quite trust.
She said: “I started way, way back with Russ Abbot, which is in fact what Victoria Wood first saw me do. I did Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em on stage with Joe Pasquale and that was heaven. “
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Susie has also played Miss Marple in a stage version of The Mirror Crack’d and played the baddie in Mrs. Brown’s Boys.
Murder in the Dark is a spine-chilling ghost story - psychological thriller with a recommend age of 14 and over. The cast include Tom Chambers as Danny. Susie Blake as Mrs Bateman. Rebecca Charles plays Rebecca, Jonny Green plays Jake, Owen Oakshott plays William and Laura White is Sarah in the production.
The play comes to Salisbury Playhouse from Monday, October 2 and finishes on Saturday, October 7.
For more information, go to wiltshirecreative.co.uk
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