Rebus: A Game Called Malice – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Rebus, the mega-popular paperback sleuth created by Ian Rankin in an Edinburgh bedsit back in 1985, is back, but not in print. No, this time he is a walking, talking, breathing creation, brought to vital life by actor Gray O’Brien.
Given that this is only the second incarnation of Rebus on stage, following Long Shadows in 2018, which Ranking co-wrote with Rona Munro, A Game Called Mallice is bound to appeal constant readers of the taciturn detective, who all inevitably have their own ideas of how he sounds, looks and moves. As a constant reader myself, I was more than a little intrigued to see if Rankin could pull this off and if O’Brien could fill the very sizeable shoes of Edinburgh’s finest DCI.
The setting is an opulent and art filled Heriot Row townhouse Drawing Room, Paul and H...