![]() ![]() On a raised area at the back of the stage a glamorous young woman enters, calling out to an unseen man. Apparently Looking Good Dead is one of a series of books/plays featuring Superintendent Roy Grace and in Shaun McKenna’s stage version he seems strangely incompetent. Let’s be charitable and quote author Peter James from the programme: “I write thrillers because I love entertaining people.” However, in the same note, he also writes about having us on the edge of our seats – and that doesn’t happen. On the other hand there is very little in the other performances to suggest a spoof and Jonathan O’Boyle’s direction, and particularly Long’s stiff-as-a-board performance, don’t hint at it. On the one hand there are the three police stuffed up together in a cramped little station downstage left, with Glenn Branson (Leon Stewart) decorating a murder investigation with silly jokes and Roy Grace (Harry Long) finishing them off for him. The problem is, “Is it meant to be funny?”. ![]() ![]() Then comes a rousing curtain call and members of the audience can be heard saying how good it was as they exit. In the final scene, after all sorts of revelations and indiscriminate seizing of pistols, the audience’s laughter is obvious. Looking Good Dead poses a problem, a mystery, at the end. ![]()
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