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Requiem for a stag Dead Simple
The New Alexandra Theatre
*** IT IS said that Peter James is one of the
UKs most treasured crime writers and with millions of books sold its
hard to argue that he is not popular. Whilst any novel has the luxury of long detailed
explanations and the ability to jump from location to location in your
imagination, the same story, when delivered in the hard confines of a
stage, will need some heavy thought process in the editing and well
planned ideas to make it work as well. Perhaps then this is where this adaption, by
Shaun McKenna, struggles in that the issues in conveying the varied
locations in a story like Dead Simple, here both above and below ground,
makes it difficult to connect to some other wise good performances. What we are left with is a several unexplained
plot holes and a series of well-acted cameos that have their merit, but
do not connect in a way that keeps the tension flowing or the attention
held. It also seems that Director Ian Talbot is not
quite sure to make it a thriller or a pantomime and instead when there
is `banter’ between characters he has his actors play it far too hard to
the audience to get a laugh, rather than keeping it all in the confines
of this dark horror story. Al
The seemingly well planned crime by the master
mind seems dependent on some happy `unhappy ‘accidents and that in
retrospect shoot holes through the whole story. Jamie Lomas plays Michael Harrison, partner in a
successful property business and soon to be married to the glamourous
and leggy Ashley Harper played by Tina Hobley. Mark Warren his business
partner and long-time friend, played by Rik Makarem, is called away on
the eve of his friend’s wedding rehearsal. While he is gone a group of their male friends
play a deadly stag night game on Michael. The stunt goes horribly wrong,
setting in motion a chain of events, complex twists and turns that keep
you guessing. All three delivered some convincing performances with Miss
Hobley employing her long legs to good use in a very `Sharon Stone,
Basic Instinct’ kind of a way. James’ sleuth Superintendent Roy Grace was played
by Gray O’brien, known to many as nasty man Tony from Coronation Street.
Working alongside detective Branson, played by Marc Small, the paring
quip and banter about relationship issues and women a little too lightly
to add any depth to the characters. It’s good fun for the audience but
hardly makes them feel as though they are committed to solving the
crime. Michael Mckell played Bradley, the Uncle of
Ashley, and showed great range in having to deliver two very different
personas. Josh Brown completes the main line up as Davey, a complex,
neurotic youth who becomes fatally embroiled in the proceedings. All in
all this potentially gripping tale of wrongful internment , coffins and
a lethal honey trap, suffers in the technical difficulties of
translation and the bringing of it to life on the stage. Whilst it keeps
you well entertained in the end it’s the tension that gets murdered and
the plot that gets buried. To 04-07-15 Jeff Grant
29-06-15
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fred
Hitchcock once said `to get real suspense you must give the audience
information’. Of course too much and that might give the game away but
here you do not get enough. You accept the villain has been caught in
the end and the jumps in the action in the hope all be revealed in a
complete explanation but these are only partial.