(CHESTER, Mass.) – Chester Theatre Company is staging the British psychological thriller Tryst by English playwright Karoline Leach through Sunday, July 21, 2013, at the Chester Town Hall.

Tryst  is set in Edwardian London, where a handsome con-man — going by the name George Love — courts women, marries them, then takes their life savings and disappears. His latest target is lonely hatmaker Adelaide Pinchin, but Adelaide has a peculiar effect on George, and almost nothing seems to go as he plans. Romance and suspense combine to create a tantalizing drama. As the twists and surprises grow, no one — not George, not Adelaide, not the audience — can be sure of the truth. The play becomes an investigation of illusion, reality, and the nature of love.

Tryst reunites two Chester Theatre Company favorites: Allison McLemore and Justin Campbell, last seen together in 2011, in CTC’s production of The Turn of the Screw. CTC associate artistic director Daniel Elihu Kramer, who helmed that production, joins the two actors again to direct Tryst. McLemore is also well known to area audiences for her performance as May in CTC’s groundbreaking 2010 production of The Nibroc Trilogy.

Tryst was inspired in part by the true story of George Joseph Smith, whose criminal history is recounted in the 2010 book The Magnificent Spilsbury, by Jane Robins. George targeted young women, promising marriage, but leaving them with nothing. He was eventually brought to justice by Bernard Spilsbury, whose investigative methods paved the way for modern criminology. Playwright Karoline Leach was inspired by the story of George Joseph Smith to create Tryst, an imagining of one encounter between George and a particularly surprising young woman.

Tickets are available on CTC’s website or by phone at 1-800-595-4TIX. To receive a brochure, contact the CTC office at 413-354-7770. CTC performances take place at Chester’s Historic Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, MA. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, with matinees Thursdays and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are $30 for weekday performances (Wed-Fri), $35 for weekend (Sat & Sun). Student, Chester Resident, and Saturday Night Rush tickets available; group rates for 10 or more are also available.