Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime at the Abbey Theatre, St Albans

The Company of Ten’s latest production is giving a new spin to an Oscar Wilde story about an aspiring murderer by transporting it from the late Victorian era to the swinging 1920s.

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, which is based on a short story by Wilde, follows the adventures of the eponymous hero, a young aristocrat whose hopes of a happy future with fiancée Sybil Merton are threatened when a fortune-teller tells him he is predestined to commit murder.

Worried that his future victim may turn out to be his wife, Savile decides to get the murder out of the way before embarking on married life.

Although both the original story and the stage adaptation are set in the late 19th Century, the Company of Ten production changes the setting to the 1920s – a stylish and fun-loving period which, according to director Lee Harris, suits the tale down to the ground.

He said: “Rather than asking who did it, this play lets both the audience and the main character ponder the questions ‘Who will he do it to?’ and ‘How will he do it?’

“Oscar Wilde said, ‘To show the truth, you must make people laugh.’ I think the truth he was trying to show here was that people are far too easily influenced by the opinions of others.”

Performances take place on the Abbey Theatre main stage at 8pm next Friday and Saturday, September 12 and 13, at 2.30pm on Sunday, September 14, and at 8pm again from Tuesday, September 16, to Saturday, September 20.

To book tickets go to www.abbeytheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 01727 857861.

n A charity performance of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime in aid of the RNLI is being held next Thursday evening, September 11.

Sales of tickets for the performance benefit the charity and are available from the local branch of the RNLI and not from the Abbey Theatre box office. They cost £14 and include a glass of wine or fruit juce on arrival.

To obtain tickets send an email to rnli.stalbans@yahoo.co.uk stating how many are required.