DEAD CERTAIN

by Lloyd, Marcus

When an unemployed actor is given the tempting offer to stage a reading of a new play by an author in her country home, he jumps at the chance. Elizabeth, an ex-dancer and once keen theatre-goer before an accident has confined her to a wheelchair, has written a psychological thriller. Michael has been out of work more often than not after his breakthrough from an understudy to the lead tole in a West End production of West Side Story. The reading begins straightforwardly enough, but it soon becomes apparent that her play has taken on a curious similarity to real life - even down to recounting their first conversation after Michael’s arrival. How could she have written that beforehand? She also seems to know a great deal more about the dark secrets surrounding Michael’s West Side Story experience than it first appeared. It isn’t long before the suspense starts to rise at an alarming rate as this taut psychological thriller gathers speed towards its gripping climax, where truth and illusion become almost inseparably entangled in a real life game of cat and mouse.