★★★

“Gray O’Brien with his languid movement and rugged good looks gives a towering performance”

Co-writers Sir Ian Rankin and Simon Reade bring a new Rebus story to the stage. The deliberately claustrophobic-looking set (Terry Parsons) is a traditional dining room with a large table centre stage and two doors leading out, left and right, which stay almost permanently closed. The walls are crammed with framed oil paintings, all individually lit. A surfeit of table and wall lamps and a suspended chandelier exude a luscious creaminess (lighting Matthew Eagland). We are at the wine and whisky stage of an impressive dinner party and the guests have been playing a murder-mystery game. Clues are discussed and hypotheses shared. We hear mentions of ‘motive, method and means’ and it’s all delightfully intriguing. Director Loveday Ingram skilfully moves her actors around the stage, seating them in different ways to provide some variety within a fundamentally static setting.

I confess to never having read a Rebus novel or seen him on TV so I might have missed expected nuances inherent in his character, but Gray O’Brien with his languid movement and rugged good looks gives a towering performance of the newly retired police detective. Initially, he spends much of the time at a distance from the other guests, prowling in the background, observing. He breaks the fourth wall to speak to the audience of his ability to ‘read the room’, the trilling of his Scottish burr a joy to the ears.

There is a lot of backstory to get through before we can have the thrill of piecing together who might have it in for whom but there is no kitsch, the script is well-written, and there are some genuinely amusing one-liners. But this back story is predominantly concerned with characters we never see and it becomes an effort to follow. Just as in the murder-mystery game the dinner guests play, the initial excitement wears away and the truth, when it comes, is somewhat underwhelming.

The ensemble cast does what it can but all the characters bar Rebus don’t have much to work on and everyone generally underplays. There’s some uncertainty within the ensemble too, particularly at the start of the second act that stuttered in this performance, but it will all gain in fluency once the run (and UK tour) has established.

The party hostess Harriet (Teresa Banham) is almost transparent in the first act but comes to life in the second with a fine burst of nervous energy. Her husband Paul (Neil McKinven) rather goes the other way, showing fine bonhomie at the start before withdrawing from the later affray. Most regrettably, for the role could be a fine one, is Billy Hartman (Jack Fleming), a casino owner with a shady past but the performance lacks the flamboyance that might be expected from such a character. Then there is Billy’s trophy girlfriend Candida (Jade Kennedy) who, as a supposedly superficial ‘social influencer’, shines out above the mediocrity around her; and, lastly, former lawyer Stephanie Jeffries (Abigail Thaw) isn’t given much to say for herself but does a fine look of indignation and disgust.

With Ian Rankin co-writing, this seems like a missed opportunity for creating something better than an average whodunnit but the central role of John Rebus just about saves the play.

CLUEDO 2: THE NEXT CHAPTER at Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★

“There’s much here that could be funny if only it were slicker, shorter and snappier.”

I must admit to not having seen the first Cluedo stage adaptation, but I am reassured that this second play is all new (writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran). I can confess to having spent many hours playing the legendary board game in my youth and thought myself an expert sleuth at the time (with rather a secret crush on Miss Scarlett). So I was delighted to see on entering the theatre, a beautifully designed set comprising a giant portrayal of the classic gameboard with a cartoonesque manor house superimposed upon it (designer David Farley).

There is nothing noir or sinister about this production, and nor should there be. We see a shady character lurking in the shadows on occasions but, otherwise, the gruesome nature of murder by whoever, wherever, with whatever is lighthearted. The characters are as cardboard cutout as they can be, resembling it too, as they often stand so statically (director Mark Bell). Nearly the whole ensemble overplay their roles, but the production lacks a twinkle in the eye or a knowing acknowledgement that this is what they are doing.

The plot, such as it is, sees 1960s rock superstar Rick Black (Liam Horrigan) assemble a group of people in his massive country manor house to assess the new album which is going to resuscitate his floundering career. A slow preamble lets us in on backstory amongst the gathering and we discover past and present liaisons, secret identities, and who might have it in for whom if pushed far enough. There could be a lot of fun to be had here but much of the narrative is too long and too slow. Running gags run on too far and the staging is often clumsy and ponderous. We are also witness to a most contrived and least convincing love scene.

The characters are, of course, dressed in their appropriate colours but not garishly so. Colonel Mustard could have been yellower, Professor Plum more purple. Miss Scarlett certainly looks the part in a bright red mini dress, and Mrs Peacock too in an elegant blue gown. Between scenes, quasi-balletic sequences see the group of suspects and soon-to-be victims move around the house often in effective slow motion (movement director Anna Healey). Windows, doors, and picture frames are flown in and out as the company explores the building from room to room.

Sadly, the ensemble isn’t as slick as it could be. Jason Durr as Colonel Mustard shouts in a broad southern states American accent that greatly affects the clarity of his diction. Ellie Leach (in her stage debut) as Miss Scarlett is competent enough but lacks nuance. Edward Howells as the non-professor Professor Plum does what he can with a character so weak that he can’t himself explain quite what he is doing there. However, Hannah Boyce as Mrs Peacock commands the stage and our attention, holding her character and accent throughout. Dawn Buckland gives the performance of the night as the down-to-earth Cook, Mrs White, who pops up in unexpected places suggesting she knows the secrets of the house’s hidden passages. Jack Bennett as the “I’m an actor, not a butler” butler Wadsworth carries a single joke and much of the weight of the physical comedy.

But the whole thing doesn’t quite hold together. There’s much here that could be funny if only it were slicker, shorter and snappier.

REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★

“Gray O’Brien with his languid movement and rugged good looks gives a towering performance”

REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE at the Cambridge Arts Theatre followed by UK tour

Reviewed on 2nd September 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Nobby Clark

Previously reviewed at this venue:

REBUS

REBUS

CLUEDO 2: THE NEXT CHAPTER at Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★

“There’s much here that could be funny if only it were slicker, shorter and snappier.”