“It’s all about women,” says Vertigo Theatre Artistic Director Mark Bellamy. He’s describing the theatre’s 2009-2010 season, of course. Considering the mystery genre is dominated by men, Bellamy says so many women is a rarity.

The season will open with a production of Calgary playwright Sharon Pollock’s Blood Relations (Sept. 19 to Oct. 11).

“I wanted to bring one of Sharon Pollock’s most popular plays back to Calgary,” says Bellamy, noting the last time the play was peformed here was about 20 years ago.

The play examines the acquittal of Lizzie Borden for the murder of her parents 10 years after the fact, when Borden’s friend demands to know the truth: Did she do it? Through a series of flashbacks, the audience is left to render its own judgment on Borden’s guilt or innocence.

Up next is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Nile (Nov. 14 to Dec. 13), a play centered on two strong female characters.

“It’s always fun to decide which Christie to do,” says Bellamy, referring to Vertigo’s tradition of staging at least one play per season by the doyenne of murder mysteries.

But, he admits, it’s also a challenge. “There are only so many plays to choose from, only about 16. You have to recycle them.”

Vertigo last staged Murder on the Nile 25 years ago, the sole Christie work Vertigo has done only once before. “A lot of our long-time subscribers have been asking for this one,” says Bellamy.

In January theatergoers will be treated to The Woman in Black (Jan. 23 to Feb. 14).

“It’s about one man who hires an actor to tell his story, so he can exorcise the nightmares of his past that have been haunting him — nightmares involving a woman in black who he’s seen on moors,” says Bellamy.

“It’s really, really creepy. It has the potential to be psychologically terrifying,” he adds.

A play by another Alberta author, Edmonton’s Stewart Lemoine, follows The Woman in Black.

Featuring two Alberta writers in one season has never happened before at Vertigo. “Finding plays by Canadians that fit our mandate — the mystery genre — is tricky, because it’s not part of our tradition in Canada,” says Bellamy.

Evelyn Strange (March 13 to April 4), is Lemoine’s “homage to Alfred Hitchcock,” says Bellamy.

“It’s very much like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. There’s a blonde heroine who has amnesia. It’s like Hitchcock funnelled through Stewart Lemoine’s quirky sensibility. It’s very funny, very witty, and a good mystery on top of it.”

Vertigo’s final play of the season is Rebecca, based on Daphne du Maurier novels and adapted for the stage by Clifford Williams. Hitchcock directed a film version in 1940, starring Laurence Olivier as the haunted, enigmatic Maxim de Winter.

“I saw the film when I was about 14-years-old, and I’ve been in love with it ever since,” says Bellamy, who will also direct the production.

Rebecca tells the story of Maxim and his second wife and how their lives are haunted by memories of Maxim’s first wife — the title character, Rebecca — and the mysteries surrounding her death.

Add to that a fanatic housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who makes sure they never forget who was once the lady of the house.