Skip to main content

Dead Simple

King's Theatre, Edinburgh
Three stars
Property developers take note. Be careful who you cut deals with, both
in business and pleasure, or else you might end up like the hapless
pair at the centre of Peter James' best-selling thriller, adapted here
by Shaun McKenna and directed by Ian Talbot for a stage version
co-produced by James himself. One minute Michael and Mark are making a
cool five million, which they've carefully lodged in a Caymans Island
account while shooting the breeze concerning Michael's impending
nuptials to Tina Hobley's drop-dead gorgeous Ashley. The next, Michael
finds himself six feet under in the local forest after an elaborate
stag night prank goes tragically awry.

Enter James' regular copper in chief Detective Superintendent Roy
Grace, who just made the headlines after putting faith in a doting but
underwritten Medium rather than foraging for clues the old-fashioned
way. With his sidekick DS Branson in tow, Gray O'Brien's Grace somehow
navigates his way calmly through a plot that also features a socially
anxious young man who's seen too much CSI, as well as Ashley's American
uncle before spotting who the real bad guys are. And yes, his discovery
is again in part down to Sarah Baxendale's devoted Medium.

All of which is tailor-made for the sort of prime time sedative TV most
of the cast have either escaped from or are en route to as they signal
every plot twist with a one-dimensional roll of the eyes that just
stops short of a wink. While there are enough double bluffs and cheap
thrills to keep the uninitiated guessing, including one carefully
placed shock-moment, this harmlessly ridiculous affair is probably for
James fans only.

The Herald, February 5th 2014




ends




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Honourable K.W. Harman: Ltd Ink Corporation

31 Bath Road, Leith Docks, March 17th-20th

In a monumental shipping container down by Leith Docks, a Sex Pistols tribute band is playing Anarchy in the U.K.. on a stage set up in the middle of the room. Either side, various constructions have been built in such a way so viewers can window shop as they promenade from one end of the room to the next, with the holy grail of a bar at either end.

Inbetween, there’s a confession booth and a mock-up of a private detective’s office with assorted documentation of real-life surveillance pinned to the walls. Two people seem to be having a conversation in public as if they're on a chat show. An assault course of smashed windows are perched on the floor like collateral damage of post-chucking out time target practice. A display of distinctively lettered signs originally created by a homeless man in search of a bed for the night are clumped together on placards that seem to be marking out territory or else finding comfort in being together. Opp…
Post a Comment
Read more

Scot:Lands 2017

Edinburgh's Hogmanay
Four stars

A sense of place is everything in Scot:Lands. Half the experience of Edinburgh's Hogmanay's now annual tour of the country's diverse array of cultures seen over nine bespoke stages in one global village is the physical journey itself. Scot:Lands too is about how that sense of place interacts with the people who are inspired inspired by that place.

So it was in Nether:Land, where you could see the day in at the Scottish Storytelling Centre with a mixed bag of traditional storytellers and contemporary performance poets such as Jenny Lindsay. The queues beside the Centre's cafe were further enlivened by the gentlest of ceilidhs was ushered in by Mairi Campbell and her band.

For Wig:Land, the grandiloquence of the little seen Signet Library in Parliament Square was transformed into a mini version of the Wigtown Book Festival. While upstairs provided a pop-up performance space where writers including Jessica Fox and Debi Gliori read eithe…
Post a Comment
Read more

Nomanslanding

Tramway, Glasgow until July 2nd
Four stars

In the dead of night, the audience are split in two and led under-cover into lamp-lit tented structures. Inside, what look like peasant women on the run lead us down a ramp and into a large circular pod. It feels part cathedral, part space-ship, and to come blinking into the light of such a fantastical structure after stumbling in the dark disorientates and overwhelms. Sat around the pod as if awaiting prayers to begin, we watch as performers Nerea Bello and Judith Williams incant mournfully on either side of the room. Their keening chorales embark on a voyage of their own, twisting around each other by way of the international language of singing. As if in sympathy, the walls wail and whisper, before starting to move as those on either side of the pod are left stranded, a gulf between them.

This international co-commission between Glasgow Life and the Merchant City Festival, Sydney Harbour Foreshaw Authority in Australia and Urbane Kienste …
Post a Comment
Read more