Film noir play uses movie tricks

A mirror will be used to give different viewpoints

A play which uses movie production techniques to make it seem more like a film opens in London next week.

Cue Deadly, a Hitchcock-styled film noir thriller, is written by award-winning crime writer Nicholas Blincoe and stars This Life's Daniella Nardini.

The show's directors have used tricks such as overhead mirrors and movable scenery to allow the audience to watch the show as if from camera angles.

It opens at the Riverside Theatre in Hammersmith on Monday.

Directors, Dan Hine and Kirsty Housley, told BBC Breakfast News they had used several techniques to made the play seem more like a film.

"One of the effects we use for overhead shots is a large mirror that's going to be in the ceiling, and it allows the audience to see the action from above," said director Ms Housley.

'Film studio'

"We've had a lot of custom-built steel frames made, which are on castors to recreate the fluidity of a camera on a film," co-director Mr Hine said.

He said that actors could step through the frames to make it look as if they moving from scene to scene.

Other frames would be used to concentrate on one piece of the action like close-ups in a movie.

Daniella Nardini said the play is "gripping"

"I suppose the nearest equivalent would be for an audience to see a film studio in progress and see part of the process of how these things are made," Mr Hine said.

The film-styled techniques have been created by choreographer Brian Tufano, who worked on the hit British films Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.

Nardini said the play, which deals with a contract killer who gets too close to his target, was a difficult role because of the technical factors.

'Gripping'

"It is a weird rehearsal because they keep talking technically... we're trying to get into character and they'll say 'No, this is a close-up'," the actress told BBC Breakfast News.

"It's only in the next few days we'll have all these things like the lighting and the score."

She said that the play required her to portray two characters, which was another challenge.

"I'm trying to talk them out of a wig because I would have to change it about 40 times," she said.

Nardini said she did not think the experimental techniques would detract from the play.

"The story is predominantly about love, because everybody seems to be in love with me! It's about a hitman who wants to get out of his life. Hopefully the story is gripping enough."