SCOTTISH crime writer Sir Ian Rankin has been writing about “this man Rebus” since 1985.
The primary e-book was printed in 1987; the newest, Midnight And Blue, arrived final Thursday. “I’ve spent greater than half my life with him. I nonetheless don’t fairly know what makes him tick. I hold writing about him to get to the core of his identification,” he says.
Rankin has harboured ideas of bumping off his gnarly Edinburgh inspector, however he reckons Rebus will inform him when it’s time at hand in his badge. Not this 12 months, it could appear, what with the BBC tv sequence, then the play and the e-book.
It seems Rebus has completed the quitting bit already after 30 years in A Recreation Referred to as Malice. He has retired from Police Scotland, he tells his fellow friends at a swanky ceremonial dinner in Heriot Row, a type of plush, high-ceiling Edinburgh city homes filled with “artwork, books and fancy photos”. Terry Parsons’ trendy design greater than does it justice, crammed with work.
Delivered to the occasion by lawyer Stephanie Jeffries (Abigail Thaw, a well-known face from Endeavour), Grey O’Brien’s John Rebus appears a bit of incongruous at such a gathering.
Standing on the again, observing, listening, suited and booted however tie undone, he’s studying the room, not the room studying him, he later tells us, in a type of waspish, whiplash monologues that will be a voiceover on display screen however has the added affect of breaking theatre’s fourth wall right here.
Within the kitchen, by no means seen, is a fancy-dan chef, employed for the evening to let occasion hostess Harriet Godwin (Teresa Banham) deal with internet hosting the homicide thriller sport she has invented. It seems, in fact it does, that in enjoying the sport, the friends expose secrets and techniques, fallible character traits, of their very own.
Rebus is the one one who by no means leaves the room at any level, for a fag, a phonecall or no matter, so when on line casino boss Paul Godwin (Neil McKinven) discovers a bloodied physique in an en-suite toilet, whereas having a nosey upstairs, all fall underneath Rebus’s suspicion, as he laconically returns to detective obligation with that familiarly unnerving method.
Who’s useless? That will be telling, and apart from, Rankin and co-writer Simon Reade do their stage enterprise so briskly, so neatly, we’re all heading residence by 9.15pm, case solved, Rebus’s droll epilogue sending us on our means.
The assassin? Was it Harriet, at all times on edge, or Stephanie, whose previous shouldn’t be with out unlucky blemish? Or Godwin, a type of enterprise varieties who offers to charity, likes to put on bespoke fits that talk far too loudly, and skates very near the sting of the regulation.
Or perhaps Godwin’s savvy younger belle (Jade Kennedy), an influencer on social media, eternally tapping away, who might run too near the wind. Or Harriet’s companion, Jack Fleming (Billy Hartman), no substitute for late husband Callum, and doesn’t he understand it.
Loveday Ingram’s course, playful, dry witted and suspenseful, matches the tempo, humour and intrigue of Rankin and Reade’s dialogue, her forged delivering good performances all spherical.
O’Brien, who caught the attention as Juror 7 in Twelve Offended Males on the Grand Opera Home earlier this 12 months, has precisely the precise hangdog air for Rebus, at all times stirring, enjoying his personal sport by his personal guidelines in pursuit of the reality. Welcome again; that retirement was by no means going to final
Rebus: A Recreation Referred to as Malice, York Theatre Royal, till Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and a pair of.30pm Saturday matinees. Field workplace: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Writer Ian Rankin will participate in Friday’s post-show dialogue with firm members. Earlier within the day, he shall be popping into the Criminally Good Books, in Colliergate, to advertise his October 10 novel, Midnight And Blue.