Peter James Wish You Were Dead Festival Theatre Edinburgh 4th April 2023 Review
Peter James’ Wish You Were Dead is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh (Wed 5 to Sat 8 April) and if you are one of the many millions of readers out there of the books of Peter James, or just someone who likes their theatre with some thriller crime on stage too, then this show is probably for you.
This stage production is adapted from the 2021 novella which is part of the ongoing Roy Grace series of stories, and as Peter James is also directly involved with the stage production of his books, fans are always assured that characters stay close to what people imagine them to be in their original stories.
There are a few things that are obvious when you sit down in the theatre for this show. Firstly there is one of the best stage sets that I have seen in a while and credit for this goes to Michael Holt (designer) and Jason Taylor (lighting designer). Secondly, some classic French songs are being played from “somewhere”. Adding the two together, we are now definitely in the entrance hall of a regional French chambre d’hote awaiting the arrival of Roy Grace (George Rainsford), Cleo Grace (Giovanna Fletcher) and their baby, along with friends Kaitlynn Carter (Gemma Stroyan) and Jack Alexander (Alex Stedman).
What could go wrong on a holiday in rural France where you go to get away from the stresses of everyday life and just relax? Everything, it seems, is the answer to that question and so much of the events and the very accommodation itself are based upon a real holiday from Hell for Peter James himself.
A remote destination, bad weather, no working mobile phones or internet, no landline telephones available due to power cuts and an eventual greeting by the one person in the building (or so it seems), Madame L’Eveque (Rebecca McKinnis) with a strange French accent, meant that this stage production was very quickly looking and sounding like a classic Agatha Christie story/stage production, and I mean this in a positive way as if you are going to do this type of story on stage then stick to the classic formula.
As our story unfolds, often by the use of a clever stage set allowing multiple locations to unfold their scenes on one stage (a style that all Peter James stage productions that I have seen use), we watch this story and its true nature unfold as Roy’s past is about to have a very unwanted impact upon his holiday.
With this type of story being adapted to stage, there are always going to be compromises and “Wish You Were Dead” is no exception. This story is, at its heart, one of psychological manipulation and revenge and there is just not the time to put in the many subtle layers of characters that Peter James is famous for in his books, and this story really needed a little extra time on stage to allow this to unfold at a more sedate pace. Instead we have our main villain Curtis (Clive Mantle) all too quickly explaining to Roy and us in the audience who he was and why he was doing some things. Also, that inevitable point of explaining everything to the audience by Roy had to be here but it all felt a bit rushed.
Oddly despite such a great set and a good stage adaption by Shaun McKenna and tight direction by Jonathan O’Boyle there were more than a few moments when everything seemed to be heading into crime/thriller spoof/parody directions.
On stage for some reason, Roy Grace never seems to have an identifiable personality here (a similar fate given to Cleo and Kaitlynn) and that gives George Rainsford a few problems, as whenever Clive Mantle is onstage as Curtis he seems to have all the best lines and this allows him to give us all a fine performance as a villain who is at times just on the wrong side of sanity; he steals every scene he is in.
At the end of the show though, judging from the applause, this audience was obviously enjoying this production of “Wish You Were Dead”.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This stage production is adapted from the 2021 novella which is part of the ongoing Roy Grace series of stories, and as Peter James is also directly involved with the stage production of his books, fans are always assured that characters stay close to what people imagine them to be in their original stories.
There are a few things that are obvious when you sit down in the theatre for this show. Firstly there is one of the best stage sets that I have seen in a while and credit for this goes to Michael Holt (designer) and Jason Taylor (lighting designer). Secondly, some classic French songs are being played from “somewhere”. Adding the two together, we are now definitely in the entrance hall of a regional French chambre d’hote awaiting the arrival of Roy Grace (George Rainsford), Cleo Grace (Giovanna Fletcher) and their baby, along with friends Kaitlynn Carter (Gemma Stroyan) and Jack Alexander (Alex Stedman).
What could go wrong on a holiday in rural France where you go to get away from the stresses of everyday life and just relax? Everything, it seems, is the answer to that question and so much of the events and the very accommodation itself are based upon a real holiday from Hell for Peter James himself.
A remote destination, bad weather, no working mobile phones or internet, no landline telephones available due to power cuts and an eventual greeting by the one person in the building (or so it seems), Madame L’Eveque (Rebecca McKinnis) with a strange French accent, meant that this stage production was very quickly looking and sounding like a classic Agatha Christie story/stage production, and I mean this in a positive way as if you are going to do this type of story on stage then stick to the classic formula.
As our story unfolds, often by the use of a clever stage set allowing multiple locations to unfold their scenes on one stage (a style that all Peter James stage productions that I have seen use), we watch this story and its true nature unfold as Roy’s past is about to have a very unwanted impact upon his holiday.
With this type of story being adapted to stage, there are always going to be compromises and “Wish You Were Dead” is no exception. This story is, at its heart, one of psychological manipulation and revenge and there is just not the time to put in the many subtle layers of characters that Peter James is famous for in his books, and this story really needed a little extra time on stage to allow this to unfold at a more sedate pace. Instead we have our main villain Curtis (Clive Mantle) all too quickly explaining to Roy and us in the audience who he was and why he was doing some things. Also, that inevitable point of explaining everything to the audience by Roy had to be here but it all felt a bit rushed.
Oddly despite such a great set and a good stage adaption by Shaun McKenna and tight direction by Jonathan O’Boyle there were more than a few moments when everything seemed to be heading into crime/thriller spoof/parody directions.
On stage for some reason, Roy Grace never seems to have an identifiable personality here (a similar fate given to Cleo and Kaitlynn) and that gives George Rainsford a few problems, as whenever Clive Mantle is onstage as Curtis he seems to have all the best lines and this allows him to give us all a fine performance as a villain who is at times just on the wrong side of sanity; he steals every scene he is in.
At the end of the show though, judging from the applause, this audience was obviously enjoying this production of “Wish You Were Dead”.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com