Royal Lyceum Theatre,
Edinburgh
Three stars
The projection of what
looks like a space storm beamed onto a huge steel-grey drum suggests
that matters of intergalactic importance are about to unfold. As it
is, novelist Ian Rankin's first ever stage play, written with Royal
Lyceum artistic director Mark Thomson, doesn't quite scale those
heights, though there are enough twists and turns in his
Edinburgh-set yarn to keep audiences spellbound.
It opens with a nightmare, as top cop Isobel McArthur is awoken in her living room by ghosts from the past she can't shake off. Coming up for retirement, Isobel declares to write a book about her experiences, with one particular case from a quarter of a century ago dominating. That was when a man called Alfred Chalmers was imprisoned for the murders of four young women. Did he do it? Isobel isn't sure, and visits Alfred in search of clues. Isobel's sexually voracious teenage daughter Alexandra, meanwhile, has already begun making…
It opens with a nightmare, as top cop Isobel McArthur is awoken in her living room by ghosts from the past she can't shake off. Coming up for retirement, Isobel declares to write a book about her experiences, with one particular case from a quarter of a century ago dominating. That was when a man called Alfred Chalmers was imprisoned for the murders of four young women. Did he do it? Isobel isn't sure, and visits Alfred in search of clues. Isobel's sexually voracious teenage daughter Alexandra, meanwhile, has already begun making…