A Game Called Malice: A Rebus Play

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Now, this isn’t your typical murder mystery; I’m notoriously not great at getting all the way to the solution in detective fiction (I work best with hunches and a bit of circumstantial evidence) – however, this is definitely a case that can only really be solved by someone on the stage rather than anyone sat in the audience, so don’t go in hoping to best DI Rebus. It is interesting how it spreads out from the original game scenario and brings in incidents from the characters’ lives, though it maybe overcomplicates the tangled web for a show with a relatively short running time, and means that suspense is rather overlooked in favour of wrapping everything up. Michie will be joined byRebecca Charles( The Dresser, Theatre Royal Bath and The Father, Duke of York Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre);Billy Hartman(best known for playing the part of Terry Woods on ITV’s Emmerdale);Emily Joyce(best known for playing Janet Dawkins in BBC One’s My Hero);Forbes Masson(best known for his classical theatre roles and comedy partnership with Alan Cumming – The High Life, BBC Two);andEmma Noakes(best known for BBC One’s Call The Midwife and leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company). Playing the lead role of John Rebus isJohn Michie ( Holby City, BBC), alongside Rebecca Charles( The Father, West End),Billy Hartman( Emmerdale, ITV );Emily Joyce( My Hero, BBC);Forbes Masson( The High Life, BBC);andEmma Noakes( Call The Midwife, BBC).

Catch Jon (with no’H’) every Thursday from 9am for three hours of The Best of Stage & Screen right here on Box Office Radio Simon Reade is a renowned adaptor. His extensive stage adaptations include Pride & Prejudice (Regent’s Park/Guthrie Minneapolis), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (TMA Award winner), Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Ted Hughes’s Tales From Ovid – both for the Royal Shakespeare Company where he was Literary Manager. Reade has also been Literary Manager for London’s Gate Theatre, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic, and has worked as a development producer for Tiger Aspect Productions and BBC Drama. \ Playing the lead role of John Rebus is John Michie, best known for his roles as DI Robbie Ross in STV’s Taggart, as Karl Munro in ITV’s Coronation Street and as Guy Self in BBC One’s Holby City. A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts, on Channel 4 in 2002. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, and opted to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons.Michie will be joined by Rebecca Charles ( The Dresser, Theatre Royal Bath and The Father, Duke of York Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre); Billy Hartman (best known for playing the part of Terry Woods on ITV’s Emmerdale); Emily Joyce (best known for playing Janet Dawkins in BBC One’s My Hero); Forbes Masson (best known for his classical theatre roles and comedy partnership with Alan Cumming – The High Life, BBC Two); and Emma Noakes (best known for BBC One’s Call The Midwife and leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company). On the fieldJuly seems to have been designated as white ball month, with enjoyable ODI & T20 series between England and both Sri Lanka & Pakistan. Complete domination against Sri Lanka was spoiled by Bristolian rain (*shakes fist*), but it was the ODI series against Pakistan that was the most satisfying; England had to pretty […] The Hundred: Initial Reaction It’s funny how writers can so competently & confidently write about subjects in which they have no expertise, managing to make it seem like they’re highly qualified – but then fall apart when they decide that one of their characters has to be an influencer or have some other vague interest in social media. The things these characters say just never quite sound natural, yet the remarks from the older generation that they’re trying to explain the whole concept to sound very familiar indeed… Candida (you already guessed it was her, didn’t you?) does at least develop and become slightly less predictable after her clunky introduction, but it’s clear that playwrights have now moved on from the obligatory selfie (that’s so 2010s) to the obligatory influencer to confirm modernity. During Act 2, John Rebus digs a little deeper into the history of each of the guests, slowly discovering a motive for each to have committed this crime. The play finishes, as it began, with John Rebus once again breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience before leaving the stage.

The new production is produced by Queen's Theatre Hornchurch where it premieres from the 2nd to the 25th of February 2023. "It's a really great theatre, it's welcoming and warm. What's great about Hornchurch is that it feels like a part of the community here. I come into the cafe and there are people coming in for the Dementia workshops and there are kids coming in too. It's really great to be in a theatre that is alive during the day. It shows what a theatre can be." With the rise of True Crime documentaries, TV shows like Line of Duty, and hit films like Knives Out and the recent sequel Glass Onionit feels somewhat like a renaissance time for the genre "It seems to be doesn't it. I watched the first Knives Out with my kids and we all watched Glass Onion over Christmas. It's brilliant. Everything is so shit at the moment and people want escapism and that's why there are so many musicals around. A play that is a whodunnit makes you try and work something out and you're active. It takes you away from thinking about everyday life." As act two begins, the focus has moved from the fictional murder 'whodunnit' to the real-life murder that has taken place in the house with all the guests becoming suspects. As is the case with all good mysteries, there are a few red herrings to try and throw us off the scent before the story unfolds. DI John Rebus has retired, but his mind is never far from the job – even when he’s been invited as a plus one to a swanky dinner party. Rebus: A Game Called Malice takes the detective off the streets of Edinburgh and into the realms of Agatha Christie’s famous sleuths; this new play (currently in a short run at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch) was written by Ian Rankin and Simon Reade, and sees John Michie follow in the footsteps of John Hannah and Ken Stott as the titular character.L-R Rebecca Charles, Forbes Masson, Billy Hartman, John Michie. Credit: Mark Sepple. Rebus: A Game Called Malice I will stop there as I don’t want to give any further details or clues and spoil the ending. I will however say that in this mystery the Butler definitely didn’t do it because there isn’t one! With a new adaptation of a beloved character, our chat led towards if there was any kind of pressure in creating this new version. "There is a lot of freedom when you create a role because you are the first person to do it and you're not looking over your shoulder thinking of what someone else did with it. Invariably I don't ever do that. I always try and find it myself. The responsibility is the story has to be quite clear and that the audience is really following it. It's quite a traditional set, it's a drawing room and I've not done that sort of thing before. In that sort of way, it's old fashioned but the play isn't, it's quite clever in that respect, you think it's one thing and then it goes somewhere else."

Tags: A Game Called Malice, Forbes Masson, Ian Rankin, John Hannah, John Michie, Ken Stott, London, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, Rebecca Charles, Rebus, Rebus: A Game Called Malice, review, Simon Reade, Terry Parsons, theatre Categories: all posts, review, theatre It's a detective show, I've not really done anything like this before, it's set in a middle-class Edinburgh home. Rebus is invited to a dinner party and they're playing a murder mystery game after the desserts. The play uncovers a lot of the darker secrets of the Edinburgh underbelly with hidden truths revealed and then it takes a twist." Forbes rightly doesn't want to give too much away and rightly so. It’s funny how writers can so competently and confidently write about subjects in which they have no expertise, managing to make it seem like they’re highly qualified – but then fall apart when they decide that one of their characters has to be an influencer or have some other vague interest in social media. The things these characters say just never quite sound natural, yet the remarks from the older generation that they’re trying to explain the whole concept to sound very familiar indeed… Candida (you already guessed it was her, didn’t you?) does at least develop and become slightly less predictable after her clunky introduction, but it’s clear that playwrights have now moved on from the obligatory selfie (that’s so 2010s) to the obligatory influencer to confirm modernity.The play begins with Rebus, a retired policeman, at an intimate dinner party for 6 and with the guests having just finished their meal, the play freezes. John Rebus, played by John Michie (probably best known for starring in Coronation Street, Holby City & Taggart), breaks down the fourth wall and introduces himself and the rest of the characters to the audience. This is cleverly directed by Robin Lefevre and is played out by Rebus pausing the music playing during the dinner party and a change of lighting.

Ian Rankin's Rebus character has now spanned 24 books and TV adaptations with Ken Stott and John Hannah playing the role but this new story has been written exclusively for the stage. "Rebus is such a popular character. It's great that the novelist has done it himself. I met Ian once, centuries ago at The Everyman in Liverpool, he came to see King Lear when I was doing the film with Pete Postlethwaite. This is a new play, Robin Lefevre is directing and it's a great cast with John Michie playing Rebus." As we take our seats in the auditorium, it is clear Terry Parsons has done an excellent job with the set design. We are presented on stage with the scene from a very elegant dining room with lots of pictures hanging from every wall. We are given the feeling that this is a very large old house complete with very high ceilings and the owner clearly is very rich.

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Simon Reade is a renowned adaptor. His extensive stage adaptations include Pride & Prejudice (Regent’s Park/Guthrie Minneapolis), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (TMA Award winner), Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Ted Hughes’s Tales From Ovid – both for the Royal Shakespeare Company where he was Literary Manager. Reade has also been Literary Manager for London’s Gate Theatre, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic, and has worked as a development producer for Tiger Aspect Productions and BBC Drama. This is a show that will probably be more pleasing for those who already have some kind of a relationship with the Rebus universe, as you get the added satisfaction of recognising some of the references (whether it’s the name of a former colleague, or something related to Rebus’ past), however it definitely stands alone well enough for you to go in blind. It certainly taps into the zeitgeist, as crime & detective fiction is still incredibly popular, and provides an alternative to the dominance of Agatha Christie stage productions. Rebus: A Game Called Malice