Wish You Were Dead

Rebecca McKinnis brought some welcome light comedy to the stage, as Madame L'Eveque, the grumpy host of the run down guest house the Graces had the misfortune to book. The audience knew it was run down, as the characters insisted on it, but you wouldn't have known it from designer Michael Holt's set. Build on different levels, with carpeted stairway, suits of armour, stained glass windows and topped off with a painting of the crucifixion, it was dark and forbidding, but also rather magnificent. It also offered up a platform for all sorts of diverting stage trickery. Lights flashed, thunder rumbled, false walls revealed secrets, and more besides that should remain a surprise. There were times when one might have supposed Roy Grace had entered a ghost story. Apart from being straightforward fun, such pyrotechnics were key to this production. Notwithstanding its literary source, this was a theatrical ride and it would be silly to get too snooty about the broad brush with which characters are drawn. In the novella, for example, Vicomte L'Eveque is part of the story. Here, Vincent Mallet is barely given anything to do, and what he does say makes little sense in the context of what subsequently transpires. The performance was perfectly fine, but his brief appearance was largely there to offer up a big reveal to an audience hungry for a twist, rather than push forward the narrative.

It was, therefore, not until after the interval, and the appearance of Clive Mantle's villainous Curtis, that things really got going. Mantle lit up the stage, injecting much needed energy into the night with a performance that was both menacing and funny. He got all the best lines too, as if Shaun McKenna had finally got his teeth into a character of substance. Rebecca McKinnis seemed to be transformed by his influence – one could almost imagine she was playing an entirely different character. This left our notional leads with little to do beyond abortive scheming that never amounted to much. The narrative reached a climax, of sorts, with the appearance of Leon Stewart and Callen Sheriden-Lee, but it all felt a little rushed. Stewart, in particular, was wasted in a role that went nowhere, while Roy Grace's cunning plan to escape his perilous situation stretched credulity to breaking point.

I’ve seen better plays but enjoyed them less, and I think that’s largely due to the pace picking up considerably and the obvious fun Mantle had chewing up the scenery. Ultimately, the evening felt like a solid cast did their best with writing that simply hadn't been worked on hard enough. The jury is still out on whether McKenna did a disservice to James's prose, or he did his best with a poorly constructed novella. Perhaps both parties are partly to blame. Either way, this felt like a work hurried into production, and one that rather took its audience for granted.