The Sleepwalkers

From failed marriage to fright, Thomas’s (Oligarchy) latest skillfully applies unreliable narration and perspective control. Evelyn and Richard are still on their honeymoon, but cracks are already forming along class lines and a history neither wants to confront. They’d been relatively happy at the small Greek island’s beach hostels, but they move inland to the Villa Rosa as a seasonal storm approaches. There, Evie grows increasingly suspicious of innkeeper Isabella’s designs on her husband and a possible conspiracy involving two previous guests who’d allegedly drowned while sleepwalking. Kit Griffiths embodies Evelyn’s cerebral, dramatic personality in a long letter to Richard that excoriates him for his disdain for her theater career and failure to see Isabella’s manipulations. Tension builds as the letter starts on current events, cutting off with a jolt before the voice of Richard, read by Raphael Corkhill, picks up from a completely different angle. His calm, resonant tone belies both the present danger at the Villa Rosa and the horror of confessions he writes to Evie, who’s run into the storm, according to Isabella.