Ignore the Houston heat — the Alley Theatre turns chilly July 5-Aug. 11 with revivals of Bayard Veiller's The Thirteenth Chair and famed detective novelist Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The murder mysteries fill out the Alley's annual Summer Chills season on the Large Stage. The Thirteenth Chair, playing July 5-21, takes place during a seance, where a mysterious Irish medium bringer her guests into contact with the dead – until the lights come back on and one of them has joined the deceased. In And Then There Were None, Christie adapts a children's poem about ten little indians and their various demises into a murderer's plan for revenge on the ten little guests staying in a secluded house.

Tickets are $17. The Alley Theatre is located at 615 Texas Avenue. For reservations, call (713) 228-8421 or (800) 259-ALLE. The Alley Theatre is on the web at http://www.alleytheatre.com.

— By Christine Ehren