Picture You Dead is on stage at the Wyvern Theatre from Tuesday 11th Feb through to Saturday the 15th February 2025. Book your tickets here: https://trafalgartickets.com/wyvern-theatre-swindon/en-GB/event/play/picture-you-dead-tickets
It’s always agreeable to see a drama on stage – I don’t get to do it often enough. And Peter James’ Picture You Dead at the Wyvern Theatre didn’t disappoint. For fans of noir – there’s some noir. Though not too much. A previous Peter James play I saw at the Wyvern was excellent. But there was one scene in particular that was def post-watershed stuff. And, had I been watching it on TV, I’d likely have changed the channel. Speaking of watersheds …
…You may be familiar with the character of DI Roy Grace from the hit ITV drama starring John Simm. I settled down to watch the first episode of that. And, to my utter horror found myself greeted with a scene that should have been way past the watershed. But yet somehow was way before it. And judging by the reaction on social media I wasn’t the only ‘Stunned of Swindon’ out there.
Anyway!
I mention Grace because this play is a DI Grace story. You can tell he’s the policeman thanks to the trench coat action.
What’s it all about?
Well obvs I can’t give much away about the plot as that would be spoilers. But what I can say is that, in a not dissimilar way to an artist building up a picture with layers of paint, so the tension builds on stage, drawing you in to its story centred around the dark underbelly of the art world. Fake or Fortune is child’s play compared to this.
Seemingly innocent and insignificant details that you’ll see and hear at the start of the play become consequential – even dangerous – as the play progresses.*
So, aside from DI Grace and his trusty trench-coat clad sergeant, we have a skilled art forger who’s already had a brush with the law. And a married couple who buy a painting at a car boot sale – for the frame – and end up getting much more than they bargained for. There are of course other characters but to say more about them would give too much away. And that would be un-palette-able.
On that note, I think I’ll draw the curtain on this production and say: Picture you Dead – it’s dead good. So do go!
Book now and book here: Book your tickets here: https://trafalgartickets.com/wyvern-theatre-swindon/en-GB/event/play/picture-you-dead-tickets
*£40 for an Arne Jacobsen look-a-like Egg chair. Bargain! That’s all I’m saying.
