Brighton-born Number One crime writer Peter James delves into the shady world of art forgeries for his latest stage offering, Picture You Dead, deftly adapted from the novel by Shaun McKenna.
Stephen Sondheim wrote in his masterful musical about painter Georges Seurat: “art isn’t easy,” and forging it I guess is even harder.
A young hard-up couple buy a dirty old painting in a Brighton car boot sale for £20 mainly for its frame. When they discover there might be another older painting underneath, there begins a terrifying tale of deception, and murder that only James’ hero detective Roy Grace can solve – linking current day events with the brutal murder of a dodgy art dealer in 2016.
The plot is not always easy to follow in this rather plodding police drama, where Grace, who is front and centre in James’ spin-off TV series, is here rather a character on the sidelines. He investigates for sure but is rather uninteresting and characterless and always a couple of steps behind the handful of villains in the plot.
The acting all round is as wooden as an Old Master’s frame, with the exception of ex-Corrie star Peter Ash as the loveable roguish Dave Hegarty, the art copyist. Hegarty is based on real-life ex-forger and now famous art copyist David Henty – another Brightonian – whose works adorn the set.
As already said, George Rainsford is given little material to shine as Grace; there’s a panto villain of a gay art dealer, Stuart Piper, who has people murdered by a sidekick. It’s a wicked, camp performance delivered with relish by Nicholas Maude, but fun to watch.
Piper’s accomplice – Jodie Steele as Roberta – is so loud and so far over the top she’s comic in her thuggish villainy. And there’s some painful dialogue to put up with too – “18 years and it comes to this,” and “I think you’re onto something.” And my favourite: “we don’t know what we know.”
There are murders, a fire, torture but in the end it’s all a bit old fashioned and very camp. The capacity audience loved it all and James was there to say a few words and raise funds for Sussex Police Charitable Trust. So job done – but art isn’t easy.
Picture You Dead is at Theatre Royal Brighton till March 9 with a rare Sunday matinee due to popular demand.
