REVIEW: Wish You Were Dead at the Southampton Mayflower

Peter James’s Brighton-based detective stories of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace have a common feature in their titles with the inclusion of the word “Dead” and usually very dark storylines of murder. In recent years, we have seen productions of Dead Simple (a buried alive story) and Looking Good Dead (snuff movies) and this latest UK tour is Wish you were dead, but it has a different feel. Set in France in the Chateau-sur-L’Eveque, a rather dark and foreboding house where Grace (George Rainsford) and his second wife Cleo (Katie McGlynn) have arrived for a relaxing holiday with their friend and nanny Kaitlyn (Gemma Stroyan) and her boyfriend Jack (Alex Stedman). But from the first moment, all is not as it should be, and they begin to speculate where Jack is, as he was expected to be there when they arrived. 

The dodgy electrics of the house, the lightning flashes outside, the dark walls, the huge suit of armour with a large halberd and the heavy musical interludes between scenes are all the hallmarks of a Hammer horror film and rather obvious devices to add tension and drama. Then add a French maid with an Allo Allo accent as Madame L’Eveque and Vicomte L’Eveque in a wheelchair (like Dr Scott from the Rocky Horror Show) and the drama soon dissipates into a comical parody. When Curtis appears in the second Act as a criminal mastermind from the East End out for revenge, you naturally smile at the overtop hammy characterisation but at least he ups the action, waving his shotgun widely at everyone and moving the story forward to its inevitable conclusion.