one4review | On 21, Aug 2025

Early Doors Productions bring a rich and nuanced small-town murder mystery in one of their best productions to date. This original work packs a lot of story into its relatively short run time, made possible by dialogue that snaps, performances that make it sing, and staging that brings everything to life.

There’s nothing superfluous in this script: the writing is clean and tight, and it’s all plot, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first. Elements that look like simple character development double up as plot points (but the performances are so good that you only see the characters until the plot becomes relevant later). Time and place are lightly but evocatively sketched, from the external world politics to the immediate microbiome. And the story is told in a lovely layered revelation of details and memories, something new coming into focus with each pass.

Performances are all-round excellent, and this feels like a show where the actors have been fundamentally involved in the development: everything is integrated, text and performances synthesised to create vivid life. And from this flows the staging. This show is grounded into the performance space, with characters pausing in amongst the audience, or speaking from the aisles. It brings an immediacy to the memories, past and present layering in the text and in the space.

Bigger productions achieve less with more. Early Doors Productions make every single word, gesture and prop count and have created an exquisite jewel of a show.

Reviewed by Laura
17:30 (50mins)
Greenside Riddle’s Court (Willow Studio)
Until 23rd