By William Mills
Theatre Review
The Perfect Murder by Peter James
A truly excellent opening night to Peter James’s stage premier of The Perfect Murder with murder and intrigue featuring a cast of five which keeps the audience guessing right up to the last moments.
Brighton’s Theatre Royal stage was skilfully arranged blending three sets together so the cast could move swiftly from one scene to another with the mere dimming of lights. The packed house was admirably entertained alternately between side splitting dark adult humour of the ins and outs of marriage and the thrilling suspense of what to do about it.
Starring Les Dennis of ITV’s Family Fortunes and Claire Goose of BBC’s Waking the Dead and Casualty as Victor and Joan Smiley who are celebrating their twentieth marriage anniversary by plotting to kill one and another.
Stage adapter Shaun Mckenna manages to include a mystic hooker from Eastern European, played by Romanian born Simona Armstrong ,giving an already exciting play a twist of the supernatural to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
ITV’s Coronation Street‘s bad boy Gray O’Brien added impetuous as did the Policeman played by Steven Miller
