For fans of the Peter James books featuring DSI Roy Grace, this stage adaptation is a must see. Picture You Dead is the seventh theatre production and has been adapted for the stage by award-winning writer Shaun McKenna, is directed by Jonathan O’Boyle and is by far the best to date.

The play centers around a married couple, Harry and Freya Kipling, who unwittingly buy a painting from a local car boot sale only find out on the Antiques Road Show that it is in fact a very valuable and long-lost masterpiece. Thereby begins a tale of intrigue, unscrupulous art dealers, fake paintings plenty of double crosses and a murder. Could it be possible that the painting is actually worth more than a life?

George Rainsford returns to the role of DSI Roy Grace along with his DS Bella Moy played by Gemma Stroyan. As you may expect from a senior detective, Grace always appears cool, calm and collected and enjoys an excellent working relationship with his long-time professional partner, Bella Moy.

The Kiplings, no connection to the cake maker of the same name, are played by Fiona Wade and Ben Cutler. They are an agreeable couple, if at times a little over the top, who epitomize everyday folk in society working hard to make a living and to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. However, Harry Kipling’s shift from a modest and mild husband to a man desperate for wealth by the sale of the painting to the highest bidder is clear to see.

Mark Oxtoby takes the role of a local artist Dave Hegarty who is known to Grace having being imprisoned by him years earlier. Hegarty is a scheming and impudent character but he serves a vital role as he connects all of the other characters together having completed some work for Roberta Kilgore in the past and is friendly with the Kiplings having got to know them through Harry Kipling’s work as a builder.

Roberta Kilgore, an art consultant with a dubious past, is played by Jodie Steele who makes brilliant use of various accents and vocal tones managing to be both threatening and comedic simultaneously. Ore Oduba plays Stuart Piper, the crooked and unscrupulous art dealer whom Roberta works for occasionally.

Overall, the cast are strong and whilst there are some excellent comedic ‘one liner’s which contrast sharply with the increasingly tense moments in the play, sadly the pace is a little slow at times which is a shame as the plot as written is both excellent and original.
The set, designed by Adrian Linford, is multi-functional and uses the stage in its entirety to represent the three key settings for all of the action – the Kipling’s modest home, Stuart Piper’s lavish home and Dave Hegarty’s paint workshop.

Picture You Dead is an entertaining crime drama that features suspense and drama with many twists and turns along the way. The fans of the Roy Grace series of books are sure to enjoy the play which is the best one yet that has been adapted to the stage but for me, I can’t but help but wonder if the stories would be better left as novels as so much of the build-up and suspense appears lost when transferred to the stage medium.

Sheffield Lyceum Until 7th June