BLOOD-COLD menace doesn’t always survive a trip from screen to stage, but The Silence of the Lambs is having a proper go at it in Leicester — and it’s not aiming for comfort.

According to a new report, the production is playing at Curve, Leicester, and it arrives with a warning label in spirit if not in print: there are moments that crackle with energy, and others that make you feel slightly unsteady in your seat.

Theatre has been flirting with big 90s movie titles lately, and this is framed as another attempt at that tricky manoeuvre. The piece is directed by Nikolai Foster, who opts against turning this material into a musical — a choice that feels less like restraint and more like basic self-preservation.

The adaptation comes from Gina Gionfriddo, and the key detail is where she’s drawing from: not Jonathan Demme’s film, but Thomas Harris’s 1988 novel. That means the story’s spine remains the dangerous interrogation between Dr Hannibal Lecter — described here as a psychotic psychiatrist — and FBI rookie Clarice Starling, who wants his insight into the serial killer Buffalo Bill.

One of the classic stage traps with famous screen stories is what’s described as “karaoke” acting: performers borrowing the most recognisable ticks rather than building people. Mollie Gallagher, in a confident stage debut and effectively the lead role, echoes Jodie Foster’s Virginia accent and pushes hard into Clarice’s pugnacious posture and walk.

As Lecter, John Partridge takes a different route. His version is noted as more sonically American than Anthony Hopkins’ famous take, which leaned into a Welsh register; the character, intriguingly, is actually Lithuanian. Partridge also avoids the hissy lip-sipping touches and brings in less charm and culture.

It’s a bold pitch: a story embedded in the public imagination, performed live, with the audience close enough to feel every choice. When a production like this works, it doesn’t just recreate dread — it reintroduces it, stripped of cinematic distance.