BWW Reviews: DANGEROUS CORNER, Birmingham Rep Theatre, November 3 2014

J.B. Priestley's most iconic play is notably An Inspector Calls. However, before this, there was Dangerous Corner, which premiered in 1932 and is currently touring the UK. The play centres on a dinner party being thrown by Freda and Robert Caplan. Along with Caplan's business partners and other guests, one remark regarding Robert's recently deceased brother causes anarchy between them. The play ends as it begins but minus the disclosure of this remark and showing how differently the evening could have panned out.

Gary McCann's set design is very small and matchbox-like on the Birmingham Rep's main stage but is exquisitely finished. The masking has greatly boxed in the set but this makes it more intricate. His costumes are also beautiful and are picked up wonderfully by Tim Mitchell's lighting. Michael Attenborough's direction is satisfactory for the piece although occasionally characters had a tendency to turn their backs to the audience and it had a very 'musical chairs' feel about it.

The cast consist of some very prominent industry names. Colin Buchanan is a household name as he is most fondly known as one half of Dalziel and Pascoe and he is a very commanding presence on the stage as Robert. Kim Thomson also gives a very classy, enticing performance as Olwyn. Matt Milne is a familiar face having played William in a previous series of Downton Abbey. As Gordon in this production, he is quite awkward to watch, I found. Some of this is down to character choices I'm sure but it was a little uncomfortable at times. He is very tall and rather than using this to his advantage, his body language contributed to this gawkiness. Furthermore, I am a big fan of Michael Praed as Charles Stanton. He is very suave and charming but surprisingly his projection was not the best. The seven-strong company did capture my attention throughout and acted the material well but unfortunately it is not my favourite crime novel.

Dangerous Corner runs until Saturday 8 November and tours the UK until the end of November.