If you watched the latest episode featuring Peter James’ tv detective Roy Grace this week and thought you would renew your joy at the theatre, it may prove a challenge.
Unlike the telly series, we’re not in Kemptown, Shoreham or Rottingdean. Grace is not still looking for his missing wife or thinking his police career may be ending. Instead we’re in a gloomy French chateau, Roy is with wife Cleo and incessantly crying baby Noah and they’re on holiday.
But amid the charcuterie, stuffed heads of wild animals, a gruesome paining of The Crucifixion and unreliable power supplies, with intermittent thunder and lightning and loud ominous music, there’s unfinished business from Brighton that fills out our evening.
Now I’ve not read the original novel, but this stage adaptation, by Shaun McKenna, and directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, goes full out for Gothic horror. At any second you expect the suit of armour to walk – well it does actually move – or a severed head or hand to be found under a cloche from the kitchen.
The gloomy, dark monolith of a multi-level set looks cramped on the Theatre Royal stage, but there’s no gloom in the acting style. It’s as if everyone’s been given a megaphone, lest we should miss a single word, and the acting style matches – full-on, over-the-top and unconvincing.
Clive Mantle is a swaggering Cockney villain, all grizzled beard, wild gestures and larger-than-life acting to match. Giovanna Fletcher is a highly excitable Cleo, full of nervous energy. Rebecca McKinnis plays an acerbic chateau hostess with a French accent thicker than a baguette, but becomes a more central character in act two – no spoilers. George Rainsford is an amicable, easy-going Grace, and the nearest character to a real, believable person in the show.
It’s the sixth play to be adapted from a James novel and as such you would think they’re would have got the formula right. Not so. But the packed house loved it – so there Mr reviewer!
Wish you Were Dead is at the Theatre Royal Brighton until Saturday 25 March and then continues on tour. Booking at atgtickets.com
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