Wish You Were Dead – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Coming less than a week after the final episode of I.T.V.’s “Grace”, this is a timely outing for a play adapted by Shaun McKenna from the Peter James novel featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.  The inspiration for the novel stems from a less than comfortable stay James and his wife experienced at a French chambre d’hote while on holiday in the south of France.  However, anyone expecting a gritty thriller with D.S. Grace driving the investigations will be sorely disappointed by this play, which is performed mostly for laughs and is more of a comedy horror than serious murder mystery.  As with any detective story, it would be unforgivable to give away the entire plot, (not that there are any real surprises), but the crux of it is that the holidaying Grace, played by George Rainsford, his wife Cleo (Giovanna Fletcher) and their friend Kaitlynn (Gemma Stroyan) arrive with the Grace’s baby, (played unconvincingly by a swaddled doll) at a French chateau B&B in a storm.  For some reason Kaitlynn’s husband, Jack, is travelling separately.  But where is he?  No phone signal, no land line, no WiFi, no way of knowing if he’s been and gone or not yet arrived.

Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, the excellent baronial style set, designed by Michael Holt, had everything one would expect of a spooky chateau, from stuffed animal heads on the walls to a collapsing suit of armour, and brought the large Festival Theatre stage into a more intimate space.   The thunderstorm added to the atmosphere, playing havoc with the chateau’s electrics.  In fact in my opinion the set, with Jason Taylor’s lighting design and Max Pappenheim’s sound design were the stars of the show!  Particularly impressive was the upstage backlit gauze, showing us, from time to time, the hapless Jack (Alex Stedman) imprisoned in the attic.

Rainsford lacked any presence or gravitas as Roy Grace, in fact he played the part so lightly it left almost no impression at all.  Fletcher, as his wife Cleo, was unconvincing and seemed to struggle in the part.   Stroyan, as Kaitlynn, and Rebecca McKinnis as Madame L’Eveque seemed much more at home and McKinnis provided most of the humour, relishing in the role of irascible host and having a lot of fun with the French accent.   I rather wished they hadn’t removed the baby from the cot so frequently; the more I saw of it being passed from person to person to soothe the crying, the more it seemed exactly what it was, an inanimate doll.  Rocking the cot instead of pulling the doll out would have gone a little way in maintaining the illusion.

Clive Mantle as Curtis made a brief appearance in act one, but the best came in act two, which was all his.  Finally, we had a force to lift the proceedings and give the play some energy.  Mantle was clearly enjoying himself, playing the part entirely for laughs and bringing the audience with him all the way.  Callum Sheridan-Lee as Brent turned up to save the day at the end.  No spoilers here, there was never any real doubt that he would.

“Wish you were Dead” runs from 4th to 8th April at The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh. https://www.capitaltheatres.com/

Reviewer: H.S.Baker

Reviewed: 4th April 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★