Review by Simon Jenner, March 4th 2025
Buy a picture for the frame and you might find yourself in the frame. At least the frame’s not a copy when you rub off some garage-daub horror and rub up a Fragonard. And a Fragonard. And a Fragonard. It’s not healthy, and that’s just the painting. Picture You Dead, Peter James’ latest dramatisation with his stage collaborator Shaun McKenna comes to its natural home, Theatre Royal Brighton, directed by Jonathan O’Boyle till March 8th.
Ben Cutler and Fiona Wade. Photo Credit: Alastair Muir
This is a gentler affair than previously, and speaks nothing of the horrors of the TV series. But humour abounds in this two-hour caper. When someone’s held captive (there’s some of that), it’s not vicious, or we jump-cut to it. It recalls some of Agatha Christie’s lighter murder mysteries and invokes one real-life character, a friend of James: former forger David Henty, here Dave Hegarty (Peter Ash, known particularly on Coronation Street). Henty (and his lightly fictionalised alter ego Hegarty) is now renowned as the world’s greatest copyist of old and new masters. Henty and James are sitting in the audience. (There was a Q&A).
Builder Harry Kipling (over-generous mates-rates Ben Cutler) and posher, just-laid-off Freya Kipling (Fiona Wade, sassy, sexy, vibing moral quandaries) find maybe white spirit isn’t the spirit of wiping off a bad daub. This is where Harry’s friend Dave Hegarty comes in. Hegarty is now going straight, and he offers advice on cleaning. Soon the couple are on Antiques Roadshow where Host Oliver de Souza (urbane, mildly shockable Adam Morris) suggests they might have at least a School of Fragonard. Or just maybe…
George Rainsford and Gemma Stroyan. Photo Credit: Alastair Muir.
Dave obliges with a copy so they can safeguard the original: just as well. Superintendent Roy Grace (George Rainsford, in a youthful, winning performance) and Sergeant Bella Moy (Gemma Stroyan, sending waves of dependability) have opened a cold case from 2016. A murdered art dealer.
They think it might lead to svelte connoisseur Stuart Piper (Nicholas Maude, just the right side of vengeful, with backstory) and his aptly named lieutenant Roberta – oh dear – Kilgore (Jodie Steele, revelling in the role). They see the maybe-Fragonard BBC moment and it just so happens it might complete something. Enter a burglar mysteriously sprung from jail, Archie Goff (Mark Oxtoby, superb in his climactic moment) and you complete the cast. Valentina Arena and Ross Telfer swell the scene, and the rest you’ll enjoy. Grace and Moy resolve each clue almost too quickly, but there’s double helix twists to the end.
Nicholas Maude. Photo Credit: Alastair Muir.
Adrian Linford’s set is a huge improvement on the last James play, and is in some ways the star of the show. A tripartite split between the Kipling’s modern open-plan kitchen/living room; the central oak-panelled multi-galleried home of Piper with a false wall revealing another cabinet of curiosities; and stage left Hegarty’s art studio: all skylight and easels, paintings and brightness contrasting with Piper’s dark candlelit space. That’s part of Jason Taylor’s lighting, with some effective mix of skylight and sky. Renowned composer and sound designer (and incidentally Classicist) Max Pappenheim produces superior naturalistic effects and light guignol themes.
This is almost wholesome family entertainment. Whilst acting’s at a low voltage for the most part in the first half till towards the end, the second act really picks up; as does the plot. Ash is particularly convincing as Hegarty; Rainsford a less burdened Grace, Maude and Oxtoby enjoy a strong scene with Steele, with Wade and Cutler a warmly believable couple. I wish though Stroyan had more to do.
Moral quandaries that thrust other characters in James plays into light and shade, here don’t give the cast quite those opportunities. It’s the nature of this affable, thoroughly artful dodge. Predictable James tropes slot in well enough in the first half, but things you expect him to try, he doesn’t. And twists are delicious. If you enjoy James, or thrillers with a light touch, don’t hesitate. Solidly recommended.
Fiona Wade and Peter Ash. Photo Credit: Alastair Muir.
Mark Oxtoby. Photo Credit: Alastair Muir.
Fight Director Terry King, Production Manager Tamsin Rose, Props Supervisor Robyn Hardy, Costume Supervisor Charlotte Johnson, CSM Alyssa Elliott, DSM Chris Lambert, Technical ASM Callum Bruce, Wardrobe Manager Josephine Lewis.
Peter Ash and Jodie Steele. Photo Credit: Alastair Muir.
