In Her Defence by Helen Saxton was originally a play called Evil Will Come with a larger cast than this performance, slightly tweaked for the reduced cast due to the constraints of taking this preview version to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is a short but enormously smart and subtle play. It's not a whodunnit or a whydunnit but the premise is: will she get away with it? Told in various scenes, this very clever crime drama moves between before the murder at a flat, to the trial at the Old Bailey. There is a surprise end with a twist I didn’t see coming.

The set was minimal. Due to its transfer to Edinburgh the basic set – a living room that doubled as the Old Bailey, worked well. The absence of a full set kept the audience concentration on the action. The props were good with attention to detail such as labels on the murder weapon, 1940s black telephone and authentic looking cigarette case.

Helen Saxton (writer and actor) and Pete Watt (director and actor) should be enormously proud of this very polished production designed and performed with professionalism and class. The audience were totally absorbed throughout and everything about In Her Defence was totally believable. It was an intelligent telling of the age-old story of the saying ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ and deserves a wider audience which would be achieved through publication of this canny and original thriller.

CHRIS HORTON

Straight outta Compton: two-hander success at Edinburgh Fringe

Dead Herring’s In Her Defence, skilfully written by Helen Saxton, is the classic Agatha Christie murder mystery play with a wicked twist. There are so many references to the ‘Queen Of Crime’ in this splendid play there is even a QR code to check if you managed to get some of them right. A nice touch.

The action takes place in the Mackinders’ London flat in 1947 where a murder has been committed. Headmaster Philip Mackinder lies dead on the floor. Pete Watt gives a carefully crafted performance as Mackinder and by contrast also confidently plays the King’s Counsel prosecuting what appears to be an open and shut case.

There are evidence labels on a gun and the whiskey decanter all marked to be given in evidence. It is all pointing to his wife Catherine who was found red handed with the gun in her hand when the police arrived.

The set perfectly catches the era from the furniture to the telephone creating a period ambience.

Helen Saxton superbly embraces the smouldering chain smoking wife whose marriage is failing after Philip returns from the war a broken man. The tension between them is palpable. Love has gone. She always wanted a baby in the hope of keeping their relationship alive but that was not to be.

Philip’s attention has turned to Kitty who has been spending illicit weekends in the family’s country house in Bexhill on Sea.

A phone call from the housekeeper Mrs Croft about a peacock-blue coat left in the house is picked up by Catherine and exposes the affair with disastrous fatal results.

But who did kill Philip? Was it such a watertight foregone conclusion? Or was there another murderer?

No spoilers here.

ROBIN STRAPP