Pack of Lies

by Hugh Whitemore

directed by Neil Arbon

The play is a dramatisation of the uncovering of Helen and Peter Kroger as Russian spies in 1961.

Not so much a thriller as a study of friendship and betrayal, this absorbing drama keeps audiences pinned to their seats. The Jacksons are a pleasant middle aged English couple with their best friends living next door, Canadian couple the Krogers.

Their domestic idyll changes when a detective from Scotland Yard - trying to foil a Soviet spy ring - asks to use their house as an observation station. As Scotland Yard makes more demands on them the Jacksons become ever-more discomfited, and their loyalties are especially put to the test when it's revealed the Krogers are in fact the spies and the Yard needs the Jackson's cooperation in setting a trap.

Should they betray their friends?