Game, Set and Match!
Ahead of Rebus: A Game Called Malice’s arrival at the Arts Theatre, Miriam Balanescu meets leading man Gray O’Brien
Aretired cop, an extravagant evening soiree, a mysterious hostess: it would seem all the pieces are aligned for murder mystery mayhem in Ian Rankin’s first stage play Rebus: A Game Called Malice. Riffing off his 24 Inspector Rebus novels, it picks up in the detective’s old age, as he is reluctantly drawn into another twisty conspiracy.
“He can’t help all his years on the force,” says Gray O’Brien, who takes on the role. An actor best known for his villainous turn in Coronation Street, his part, he says, “is really just about police procedure and how a policeman works, how a detective’s brain works, and trying to get into that.”
As a fellow Scotsman, Gray was familiar with Ian’s novels – though he confesses ‘there’s so many of them’ that he hasn’t quite got through all two dozen. “It’s very much Edinburgh-orientated,” says Gray. “However, [in this play] we’re dealing with people from the aristocracy and, with that, different education systems. Perhaps John Rebus is out of his depth there.”
Its enclosed setting, in an imposing, impossibly lavish Edinburgh townhouse, was an attempt to keep the play simpler than the TV series that preceded it. “It was Ian’s first stab at writing a play, so he wants to contain it. He’s written a brand-new story,” says Gray, adding: “Something’s happened at this address.”
A benefit of it being early in Ian’s foray into the theatre world was that the writer himself was present to assist the actors. “When you make a play, you have the luxury of a few extra days to sit and dissect all the text so that everyone has the same understanding of what each element means. And we would ask Ian many questions as we went: ‘What do you think that means?’ He’d say, ‘Well, what do you think it means? I know what I think it means but you should be able to think.’ That’s how he deals with his books – he wants the readers to work it out. So he wasn’t giving too much away.”
In A Game Called Malice, the audience is encouraged to participate as pseudo detectives. When I speak with him one week into rehearsals, Gray hopes it will be similar to his experience of performing in Peter James’ murder mysteries. “There is this intake of breath from 600 or 700 people,” he says. “Billy Elliot has this electricity, and one really does feel that. Actors always say it’s the best drink ever.
“If you drop the ball on stage, start thinking about what tube you’re getting home, what time the trams finish or did you leave the iron on, you’re in trouble.”
Gray is returning to the Cambridge Arts Theatre after mere few months away, having recently toured Twelve Angry Men. When asked if it’s standard for actors to be on the road for so long, he says: “This is unusual… On tour, it’s great, you’re just a bunch of actors. We don’t hang out, we’re not walking around like a travelling band and a bus. We all do our own thing. Then we turn up at seven o’clock and all come together as a company.” On the flipside, though, “you do have to have discipline. It’s not easy.”
As a Scottish production that’s in the middle of a tour around the UK, Ian’s play is fairly rare. “There’s always Scottish work in Scotland, but perhaps it doesn’t travel,” comments Gray. “I mean, this will travel well because Ian has such a readership. However, he likes to think this play could be set anywhere – anywhere in the world. This story will translate to any culture and any country.”
