The Perfect Murder

International best selling author Peter James certainly knows how to pen a great crime novel and this time round the play based on his novella really hits the spot. The previous production somehow didn’t mesh but with this new cast the whole really comes to life. Firstly, they bring out the hysterical comedy of the situation. This is a deadly farce with all the twists of a great thriller, not a plain old murder mystery, James almost always runs the murderer’s story in parallel with his assailants, this time the ubiquitous Roy Grace. But it is the cast who bring the whole to life and in particular Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie. Wallace is compelling watching, milking every last word for full effect and using facial skills, perhaps honed for TV, to enliven her superb performance. Richie is at first almost unrecognisable as the dull husband seeking comfort with a Croatian prostitute. In this he shows that there is far more to him than the affable Alfie Moon, a solid performance that goes from comic to darkly sinister with alarming ease. If I had any quibble it would be with the inclusion of a chest freezer, who has them these days?
Theatre Royal Brighton
7 March
Andrew Kay
5 stars