About the Play:

A Tomb With A View is a full-length comedy thriller by Norman Robbins. Get ready for twists, turns, and plenty of mystery in A Tomb with a View. When the eccentric Tomb family gathers for the reading of their late father's will they are shocked to discover a surprise beneficiary. Someone turns to extreme measures to ensure their inheritance and one-by-one the bodies begin to pile up. Expect doublecrossing, backstabbing, subterfuge and murder in this thrilling whodunit.

A Tomb With A View is a darkly comic romp about family secrets and murder most foul. In a deeply sinister old library looms the omniscient portrait of a grim-faced, mad-eyed and unnerving old man, the deceased patriarch Septimus Tomb. There, the long-standing family lawyer prepares to read the wealthy eccentric's will. The six siblings have their own twisted reasons for desiring the money. Each of them is positively insane. One has werewolf tendencies, another wanders around in a toga convinced he is Julius Caesar while a third, who appears to be a gentle old lady, delights in killing people off with her poisonous brews. Not only the family members are hopeful, there is also the housekeeper and the nurse. They are all desperate to hear who will inherit the vast fortune, but the arrival of a stranger – a famous romantic novelist and her terribly shy assistant – throws them into a state of panic when they realize she is the main beneficiary. With their dreams of millions in doubt, the Tombs take matters into their own hands, and the race is on to make sure the 'last one alive' gets to keep the money! By the third act, there are more corpses than live members left in the cast and what about the sympathetic nurse and the author of romantic novels? Are they all, or more than, they seem to be? Full of witty dialogue, outrageous characters, and unexpected twists, A Tomb with a View is a wickedly fun whodunit that will keep your audience guessing, and laughing, until the final curtain.

A Tomb With A View premiered in 1977 at St. Players Theatre in Yorkshire, England. Since then it has had over 1,800 productions worldwide with translations in German and Dutch, and remains a popular choice for community theatre productions.

Cast: 6 female, 4 male

What people say:

"A Tomb With a View is entertaining and fun, with just enough of the macabre to make it a refreshing change from the usual dark and stormy night, English manor house mystery fare." — DC Metro Theater Arts

"Laughs increase along with the number of victims – adding incentive to explore this extraordinary whodunit." — Capital Gazette

"This is a well written and well constructed play with more twists and turns than a corkscrew and you will never work out who the murderer is, so you have to wait till the end of the play to find out." — Haven News

About the Playwright:

Norman Robbins (1938-2016) was a well known English actor, director, and prolific playwright, who had great success with his play, A Tomb with a View about a homicidal family called Tomb. He appeared on radio, film, and stage and was seen on TV in Open All Hours, Last of The Summer Wine, All Creatures Great and Small and many others.