Review: Thriller twists and turns with gleeful relish

Peter James’ latest stage adaptation is a tightly directed, well paced crime romp

⭐️⭐️⭐️

UK Tour, seen at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Nothing beats a good old fashioned crime caper, especially when it’s set in a spooky old house, straight off the lot of a Hammer horror movie.

It’s into just such a setting that Peter James’ off-duty Detective Superintendent Roy Grace takes his family on their first holiday together.

Wish You Were Dead finds Grace, wife Cleo and baby son Noah arriving at their chambre d’hote (think a Medieval Air B&B) in rural France with friends for a well-earned break from the dark and dangerous world of policing, but their dream holiday turns out to be a nightmare as Grace’s past catches up with him and his family.

Pacey and pitched with just the right degree of tongue in cheek, Shaun McKenna’s stage adaptation of James’ best-selling novel twists and turns keeping audiences on the edge of their seat as a cast of familiar faces play their roles with complete conviction.

Those faces include George Rainsford (Ethan Hardy in BBC One’s Casualty), Clive Mantle, a man of many roles but probably best loved now for that puddle scene in the Vicar of Dibley, and multi-talented I’m A Celebrity winner, Giovanna Fletcher.

Mantle plays his every line and move as Brighton crime boss, Curtis, with an unbridled relish while still managing to imbue the nastiest of creations with enough humanity and warmth to also make him likeable.

Fletcher too is on fine form and gives a compelling turn as new mum Cleo.

Rainsford, meanwhile, proves a baby-faced Grace who doesn’t seem old enough to have a 20 year history with bad boy Curtis - he must have joined the force straight out of school.

However, it’s Rebecca McKinnis who steals the show as the crotchety French owner of the holiday property - it’s a curiously, yet cleverly blunt performance that guarantees laughs.

That all the action is played out on Michael Holt’s brilliantly designed set only lifts the writing and Jonathan O’Boyle’s direction to another level.

From the suit of armour in the lounge to the gothic crucifixion hanging in the bed chamber (holiday homes with suits of armour don’t have bedrooms) and some stunning gauze work, kudos too to lighting designer Jason Taylor, Wish You Were Dead is a crafty piece of theatre and a thriller that doesn’t outstay its welcome with a succinct running time of two hours, including interval.

Wish You Were Dead is now touring nationally. Full tour details can be found at https://myticket.co.uk/artists/wish-you-were-dead