Gallowglass

Gallowglass is a Celtic word for chief’s servant. It describes the central relationship of this Ruth Rendell thriller which is set up when Sandor saves suicidal Joe, he then becomes the de facto slave to Sandor’s master. They plot to kidnap young, beautiful and rich Nina who is married to much older Ralph (her third husband) and lives in a remote mansion. As you can see this is almost written by numbers as all sorts of characters are assembled with sketchy pasts, mainly to keep us off track, which it does for most of the considerable running time. It would have benefited from some trimming but the production stuck slavishly to the book.

Eastbourne Theatres, 20 March 2018

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