Six people are at dinner in a grand house in Edinburgh. The dining room, full of old masters, resembles a stately home. The set by Terry Parsons is absolutely gorgeous. You will want to live there. The hostess has hired a chef. “That’s a wealthy person’s idea of a take-away,” remarks one of the diners.
The food has been delicious and for the evening’s entertainment, the hostess has devised a murder mystery for her guests to solve.
It’s all very warm and cosy as the after dinner wine and brandy flows. But then there is a shocking discovery. As most of them are busy working out the clues, someone leaves the room to find- a real-life dead body upstairs.
The horror of it. Accusations go round the room. Which one of them has done this?
They are a mixed bunch. Glamourous young Candida, in her figure-hugging red dress is an influencer.
She says this will make a great podcast.
Her older, wealthy lover, owner of a casino, Jack, has a checkered past. He’s a bit of a geezer. Candida cheerfully admits that one of Jack’s attractions was his wallet.
Then there is the lawyer, Stephanie, shrewd and chic in her cream suit and glittery shoes. She has brought along a plus one – our hero John Rebus the famous detective.
And we mustn’t forget the hosts, Harriet, and her husband Paul. Their marriage seems to be a bit frayed round the edges.
All six of them have secrets.
This is a fast-moving murder mystery with a rather clever twist. It is meticulously performed by a cast who all have good comic timing and can also deliver the serious speeches with verve. Teresa Banham as Harriet giving a heart-felt, true picture of her husband was a tour de force.
Abigail Thaw as lawyer Stephanie gives a natural and understated performance, Gray O’Brien as Rebus is a masterful centrepiece of the play.
Billy Hartman as casino owner Jack Fleming offers us a sinister individual whom no one would trust with a fiver.
Teresa Banham and Neil McKinven as the hosts Harriet and Paul show a fine undercurrent of matrimonial disharmony under a polite, middle class veneer.
Jade Kennedy as the aspirational Candida Jones is wonderfully down to earth. When Jack crushes her phone in an attempt to destroy some evidence on it – she shrugs and says: “It’s all on the cloud.”
Co-produced by Cambridge Arts Theatre and written by Ian Rankin and Simon Reade (with Rankin’s first draft in the Covid lockdown when he says he was confined to one room) this is a nice nugget of traditional drama set right now.
The contrast of a time-honoured genre in a modern era works well. It’s slick, amusing and an expertly performed.
Rebus: A Game Called Malice is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, September 7 then touring.
