New stage production Rebus: A Game Called Malice coming to the Pavilion theatre

The new stage production has been developed by Sir Ian Rankin, author of the multimillion-copy best-seller series of over thirty novels and creator of John Rebus. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. Earlier this year, a BBC television adaptation, filmed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, debuted on screen. The synopsis for the new play says: “A splendid dinner party in an Edinburgh mansion concludes with a murder mystery game created by the hostess. A murder needs to be solved. But the guests have secrets of their own, threatened by the very game they are playing. And among them is Inspector John Rebus. True crime is his calling. Is he playing an alternative game, one to which only he knows the rules? There are suspects, clues and danger with every twist and turn - and a shocking discovery will send this game called ‘Malice' hurtling towards a gasp-inducing conclusion.” Best known for his TV roles in crime drama The Loch, Coronation Street, Peak Practice and Casualty and films The Wasting and The Daniel Connection, 56-year old Glasgow actor Gray also has multiple theatre credits, including Educating Rita, Catch Me If You Can, The Sound of Music, Dead Simple and Sleuth. Speaking to The Scotsman, Gray said: “This is a new piece, a new story, not a stage version of one of his books. It’s a six-hander, six actors, and Rebus is invited along to a dinner party in the New Town at Heriot Row, so it’s set in the dining room of a very grand house and he’s a plus one, that’s where it all starts.”

“There are times where we know the audience is going to say, ‘oh, what’s happened there? Was that significant?’ And that’s our job, to tell that story, so it’s great fun.

“There really is a puzzle to work out and at the interval I’m sure people will be saying ‘do you think it’s her? Do you think it’s him? What does that mean? What was that?’ We’ve got all that. That happens throughout the play, people trying to dissect the text and sometimes people will say ‘shhhh, just watch it!’ But that’s all part of it.

“And it’s a good piece of writing. There’s lots to the script. It really is multi-layered and there’s just so much nuance in it and that’s what we’re all trying to find as actors.

“The play is all about reading the room and that’s what Rebus does. He watches body language. I didn’t realise how much of a police thing that is and Rankin has obviously spent so much time with police and his research is meticulous. So every word he’s written we hang on, because we want to do service to why he’s chosen those words.

“And it’s interesting when he comes in to see us working in rehearsals. You ask him about a line and he says ‘what do you think? I’ve written it but what do you think?’ because that’s what he does - he writes it and then he hands it over but we want him to approve what we’ve done.”

Gray O’Brien stars in Rebus: A Game Called Malice by Ian Rankin and Simon Reade at the Pavilion Theatre, 23–27 September.