Misunderstandings will run rampant. Red herrings will be strewn about with wild abandon. Accusations will be made. Frayed emotions will erupt fiercely.

All this is promised at Keighley Playhouse presents the Agatha Christie whodunnit Murder On The Nile from Monday to Saturday next week.

Audiences will be taken back to the last century for intrigues, arguments and bumpings-off to a backdrop of about ancient Egyptian ruins.

When a sensational young heiress flees to an Egyptian riverboat for a private honeymoon, she is shocked to see a boatful of familiar faces.

The characters are a stereotypical bunch - an overbearing matron, her put-upon niece, a socialist who looks down on the rich, a clergyman, a doctor, newlyweds and the jilted girlfriend.

Each has a skeleton in the closet and is any of them who he or she seems?

Director Patricia Henny said: “Agatha Christie was famous for her colourful characters, rich settings, unexpected plot twists and of course everyone is a suspect.

"She had a way with plotting and a psychological insight into behaviour that served her novels well.”

The Playhouse promises that the story will twist and turn with frightening rapidity, the seemingly guilty soon deemed as innocent and the meek and mild taking no time to reveal murderous tendencies.

Patricia added: "Agatha Christie may not have originated it, but she certainly subscribed to the theatre rule that if you produce a gun on stage, someone better well use it before the end of the play.

"So the minute it does appear, you can be sure that shots will be fired and the consequences will be dire.

"Bullets follow blackmail and bodies follow bullets in this jagged love triangle with razor-sharp edges. Everyone in the audience suddenly becomes a detective!"

Patricia promised that the final scene of a solution that many would not see coming. Book on 08451 267859.