THERE is no question that Venice makes an indelible impression, and that mixture of enchantment, beauty and menace was never better captured than by Nic Roeg’s 1973 masterpiece Don’t Look Now, with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland at its heart.

In 2007 playwright Nell Leyshon created a stage adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier short story on which the film was based, and now, almost two decades later, she has re-worked it for a 2020s audience, updating the language and characterisations. The new version is now playing at Salisbury until 15th November, and the first nod must be to the technical team. The set, lighting and sound stunningly evoke the tension of the confusing city and its canals at a time when a killer is on the loose.

This story is not just about physical threats, but supernatural forces at work. John and Laura have been married ten years. Their daughter Christine has died of meningitis two months before the play begins. Earlier contact with medics might have saved her life, but John decided to delay the call. Laura is distraught and unable to escape the memory of her dead daughter, and the doctor has advised the couple to take a break from their home and its memories. They have returned to Venice, to the hotel where they spent their honeymoon, and John is impatiently hoping that normal service will soon be resumed.

But a chance meeting with two American sisters in a restaurant brings a whole new dimension to their holiday. One of the sisters is blind, but she has visions, and she sees Christine sitting between her parents at the table. In a second vision, the dead child wants to warn her father of danger. The sisters tell John that he, too, has psychic powers, but he angrily refutes all their claims.

The fog rolls in from the lagoon, a murderer haunts the calles and bridges …

For anyone who remembers the film, the difference in the dynamic between John and Laura (Sophie Robinson) can prove difficult. Mark Jackson’s John is not a sympathetic character, selfishly trying to control his bereaved wife and her moods. Alex Bulmer and Olivia Carruthers give the sisters a commanding presence in this chilling story of inevitable fate in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

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