This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw Picture You Dead at the invite of The Alexandra.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Fiona Wade spoke about her role in the touring production of Picture You Dead. Listen below:
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
Peter James Picture You Dead at The Alexandra: Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐”A fun crime story”
Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, Adapted by Shaun McKenna
After discovering a possibly lost art piece at a car boot sale, Freya (Fiona Wade) and Harry (Ben Cutler), find themselves in the spotlight on TV. But there’s a plan, make a copy of the artwork and keep the copy in pride of place in their home. But now dodgy art collectors are after the work.
George Rainsford returns to the stage as Grace, and it doesn’t particularly matter if you’ve seen him as Grace before or seen any of the Peter James series. Here, he is a full-on investigator and walks into each situation fresh. I wanted to see his character do more and get to know him better but he is still great.
Fiona Wade and Ben Cutler are both very good as the couple thrust into fame and this mysterious art world. Thirty minutes have passed nearly by the time Ore Oduba and Jodie Steele appear as the dodgy art dealers, both scene stealing their way through this production.
The set is static and becomes four clear different locations, a regular home, a police station, an art workshop and the art collectors display room. Music is sparse but effective and the costumes make this feel very 2025. Tech is used to push the story and it does so fairly smoothly in this instance.
There are some over the top moments later on, and the production shouldn’t be taken too seriously as it doesn’t take itself too seriously either. Anyone new to Grace will find this as a reasonable starting point.
A fun crime story, Picture You Dead is at The Alexandra until 28th June. Book tickets here: atgtickets.com/shows/picture-you-dead/the-alexandra-theatre-birmingham.
