The Incident Room

“The Incident Room” is a tense detective drama written by Olivia Hurst and David Bryne. The storyline is set in the Millgarth Incident Room in Leeds for what was the biggest manhunt in British criminal history as they battle to catch Britain’s most notorious serial killer. The action takes place between 1977 and 1981 …

The director, Poppy Dawson has done a remarkable job with this production, even more so considering this was her first attempt at directing! The staging was excellent, particularly the split scenes. The atmosphere created was tactful, respectful and honest. The overall feeling of the play was quite moving and the tension built with a good pace throughout. Well done Poppy! At this point I would like to mention Jack Dawson who was the voice coach; the cast all had very good accents which they all sustained very well throughout the play.

There were nine named characters in the play all gave very good performances and I am reluctant to single them out for this reason. Megan “Meg” Winterburn (Police Sergeant) played by Laura Ilkiw-Jenkins, Dick Holland (Deputy Senior Investigating Officer) played by Craig Jones, George Oldfield (Senior Investigating Officer) played by Bill Horsley, Andrew “Andy” Laptew played by Tyler Marshall, Sylvia Swanson(Civilian Police Employee) played by Kirsten Mackiewicz, Tish Morgan (Yorkshire Post Reporter) played by Charley Moore, Maureen Long (Bradford Resident) played by Sarah Dillon, Jack Ridgeway (Head of Manchester CID) played by Callum Ilkiw-Jenkins and Jim Hobson/Terence Hawkshaw ( Head of Tyre Enquiry/Taxi Driver and Suspect) played by Kevin Johnson. Mention too for the various voices – Bill Horsley, Callum Ilkiw- Jenkins, Kevin Johnson, Jack Dawson and Kirsten Mackiewicz. Well done to you all, some great performances!

The set for this production was excellent and was very well dressed. The props were all very good and well utilised. The costumes were very good and in keeping with the era. The lighting quality was excellent particularly in the split scenes. The sound quality was also very good. Thank you to all at Abbey Community Theatre for this very well performed production of “The Incident Room”. It was gripping to watch and was very tastefully and sensitively portrayed.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.