When a glamorous Hollywood starlet is stabbed on-set in a fatal mix-up of props, there’s only one man fit for the job of solving the crime: Stan Shakespeare. Award-winning company New Old Friends return once again with the latest installment of their ever-popular Crimes… series, Crimes, Camera, Action.
Inspired by the classic English writing of Agatha Christie, Noël Coward and PG Wodehouse, the madcap comedy thrillers have so far seen the company head to locations are varied as the English Riviera and the banks of the Nile. This time, they’re in Golden-era Hollywood bringing in the world of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett with a slippery, hilarious case ready and waiting to be solved.
Meet Stan Shakespeare: a hard-boiled detective who has seen it all before. Or has he? When a crucial mix-up of theatrical props results in the accidental stabbing of a movie star, it sets in motion a bizarre chain of increasingly unfathomable events. Paying respectful, yet playful, homage to Humphrey Bogart, the latest creation by New Old Friends is every bit as energetic, inventive and amusing as the previous offerings in the series.
A cast of just four actors will again tackle multiple roles – sometimes within the same scene – bringing the full force of New Old Friend’s talent for skillfully ramshackle comedy to the stage. Following its premiere at the Ustinov Studio in Bath in March 2020, the comedy thriller will embark on an extensive tour to venues across the UK throughout spring and early summer.
Feargus Woods Dunlop from New Old Friends said “We have always loved Film-Noir and knew we wanted to take the Crimes… series into a slightly new world to give us fresh tropes to play with and new landscapes to create nonsense in. There is a slightly different structure to a Hollywood private-eye story than an English cosy-crime one and that has been great fun to explore. We are very excited to present this fresh spin on the popular series.”
New Old Friends are an award-winning theatre company dedicated to creating original comedy theatre, founded in 2008 and run by husband and wife team Feargus Woods Dunlop and Heather Westwell. In 2017 and 2018 the company were awarded the Creative Bath Award for writing. Previous shows include five installments of the hugely popular Crimes… series of comedy thrillers, including 2019’s spring hit Crimes on the Nile. In summer 2019, their adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’ The Falcon’s Malteser enjoyed a six-week run at London’s Vaults Theatre. It was selected as a ‘Critic’s Choice’ for ‘Best Family Shows’ by the Guardian. Their latest show for families, Swiss Family Robinson (Top 40 Christmas shows 2019, inews) premiered at The Core at Corby Cube last Christmas.
