Review: REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE, Pavilion Theatre

The setting for the evening is a mansion in Edinburgh. Some old friends are having a decadent dinner party and in attendance is retired detective John Rebus (Gray O'Brien). He no longer works for Police Scotland but it seems his instincts aren't something that can just be turned off.

The dinner hosts are Harriet (Teresa Banham) and Paul (Neil McKinven) and they have arranged a lacklustre murder mystery game. The guests are more interested in drinks and gossip. Jack (Billy Hartman) is attending the dinner with his much younger girlfriend Candida (Jade Kennedy). Unfortunately, Candida is pretty thinly written as a wannabe social media influencer with not much to talk about outside of her iPhone. It's clear she is meant to be much younger than Jack with little in common but the writing portrays her as a self-obsessed teenager rather than a young woman and its clear the script is to blame rather than Kennedy's performance. 

O'Brien is a charismatic Rebus who is impressively unflappable as a chaotic evening unfolds around him. 

There is a mystery to be solved, and red herrings aplenty. Without giving too much away, one of the main plot points is difficult to engage with as it happens with a character we never meet. There are some other interesting ideas but they don't have as much impact as they should during the reveal as we lack the emotional connection. 

Rebus: A Game Called Malice is written by Rebus creator Ian Rankin and playwright Simon Reade. It's an entertaining evening but much of the play feels like it should be a book rather than a stage show due to so many key plot points happening offstage.

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