Underground, The Halliwell Theatre Company, Harvey Street Church Hall, Halliwell. Runs until Saturday

AN odd assortment of characters sit together in an underground carriage travelling through London. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary until the tube train comes to a sudden halt.

The train remains motionless, and little by little the characters' nerves begin to jangle.

The lights go out and a murder is committed.

At this point the play turns into a whodunnit. And in the claustrophobic confines of the carriage, the audience is taken through a series of twists and turns, innuendos and allegations.

An ability to convey those close and uncomfortable claustrophobic conditions is essential. This, the Halliwell company achieves terrifically well. The stage is brilliantly converted into a scruffy carriage complete with grafitti and dirty windows. In fact, it is so convincing that when the curtain drew back at the start of the performance, the audience gave a spontaneous round of applause.

Each character is well defined, and needless to say each twist the play took did take the audience by surprise. This was a thriller performed well enough to keep the audience guessing.

There were no weak performances, and Arthur Taylor was particularly noteworthy in his role as the tramp, Chris Millard was excellent as the obnoxious Michael Preston and Marjorie Holder gave a lovely performance as the elderly Felicity Allender. Neil McMahon was strong as the New York lawyer Jim MacLain leading the investigation.

On a personal note though, a variety of accents, can often grate even in the most professional of productions, and here I did wonder whether the Irish, American and cockney accents were really necessary.

Overall, this was an entertaining night out thanks to some fine acting and a polished performance from the backstage crew. Beverly Greenberg