KARINA Jones, the first visually impaired actress to take on the role of Susy - so famously played by Audrey Hepburn in 1967 in Wait Until Dark, will be starring in the thriller when it comes to Malvern this week.

As part of a national tour by the Original Theatre Company, this major revival of Frederick Knott’s gripping play will be at the Festival Theatre from Tuesday (October 24), through to Saturday (October 28).

Co-starring with Karina will be Jack Ellis as Mike, and Oliver Mellor as Sam Henderson.

The play is set amidst the social turbulence of 1960s London and follows the story of Susy, a blind woman who, left alone in her apartment, becomes the victim of an elaborate scam hatched by a group of conmen.

Susy is left to fend for herself, and eventually finds a way to turn the tables on the conmen and give them a taste of life in the dark.

Frederick Knott, best known for writing Dial M For Murder, wrote Wait Until Dark in 1966.

A year later Audrey Hepburn starred as Susy in the film adaptation, for which she was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress. The film is often ranked as one of the top 100 scariest films of all time.

Karina Jones has an extensive range of theatre, TV and radio credits to her name and is an international aerial circus performer and trained belly dancer!

She has a degenerative sight condition and is visually impaired.

An associate director of the Invisible Flash Theatre Company she works as a visually impaired access consultant for many companies, including Graeae and Ramps on the Moon.

She was part of the 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony team, and she can add to here skills that of recently belly dancing for the world’s press outside 10 Downing Street to highlight disability rights issues.

Jack Ellis is best known for starring as Jim Fenner in ITV drama Bad Girls and played regular Harry Mason in Coronation Street from 2007 to 2008. His extensive TV roles include Vera (ITV 1), New Tricks (BBC 1) and regular Robert Ashford in Where the Heart Is (ITV 1).

His theatre credits include Warden Stammas in the UK tour of Shawshank Redemption, Hastings in Richard III at The Old Vic and Horatio in Hamlet, Orsino in Twelfth Night & P.R Deltoid in A Clockwork Orange, all for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Oliver Mellor is best known for playing the role of Dr Matt Carter in Coronation Street from 2010 to 2013. Oliver also played Walter MacMurray in Father Brown (BBC 1) and Julian Woodley in Midsomer Murders (ITV 1).

He has toured the UK playing Tony Wendice in Frederick Knott’s Dial M For Murder, James Herriot in All Creatures Great & Small and Edward Raynor in Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee.