REVIEW: The Da Vinci Code @ Theatre Royal Brighton

Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel and film the Da Vinci Code is not so much a whodunnit as a whydunnit? And now, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, it hits the stage of Brighton’s Theatre Royal in this whirlwind UK tour starring Eastenders actor Nigel Harman. If you have been under a rock all your life and don’t lnow the plot, there’s no way for me to avoid one spoiler after another.

From almost the get-go we know that deluded monk Silas has murdered Louvre museum curator Jacques Sauniere, but that Sauniere has left his estranged granddaughter Sophie a wide range of visual and physical clues to a much bigger mystery – the whereabouts of the fabled Holy Grail.

The Muscle Mary Silas ( Joshua Lacey) is much given to self-flagellation and being pitched into the air by a hooded ensemble. Setting that beefcake diversion to one side, the show was saved for me by the stunning visual effects that give it the filmic quality it needs. Cryptic clues , many connected with Leonardo Da Vinci, be they numbers or jumbled words are projected onto the high-tech set, all within a sort of giant picture frame.

Harman, as a gentle, shy Indiana Jones figure, leads the other characters, but more importantly us, through the labyrinth of puzzles, false starts and sudden revelations and he’s aided in this project by his side-kick Sophie, played by Hannah Rose Caton, in what for me was the only multi-dimensional characterisation.

There are villains galore – well at least three – and Death In Paradise star Danny John-Jules morphs from doddery old academic to something quite different in a reasonably believable way.

If you know your cryptex from your keystone or Fibonacci number sequence, or your Temple Church from your Rosslyn Chapel, you will love the twists and turns of this treasure hunt, with its startling revelation in its final moments. And the secret of the Holy Grail? Well I’d have to kill you if I told you. But look for the hidden woman in Leonard’s Last Supper – that’s all I’m saying.