Rebus: A Game Called Malice tours to the Theatre Royal Bath

Following the success of the critically acclaimed BBC television series, Ian Rankin’s much-loved detective Rebus returns to the stage in a new play Rebus: A Game Called Malice, written by Ian Rankin and Simon Reade, which appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 30 September to Saturday 5 October.

Starring Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street, Peak Practice, Casualty) in the title role, alongside Abigail Thaw (Endeavour) and Billy Hartman (Emmerdale), the play centres around a murder mystery game. Directed by Loveday Ingram, Ian Rankin’s new Rebus story can be seen exclusively on-stage and visits Bath as part of a twelve-venue tour.

A splendid dinner party in an Edinburgh mansion concludes with a murder mystery game created by the hostess. A murder needs to be solved. But the guests have secrets of their own, threatened by the very game they are playing. And among them is Inspector John Rebus. True crime is his calling. Is he playing an alternative game, one to which only he knows the rules? There are suspects, clues and danger with every twist and turn - and a shocking discovery will send this game called ‘Malice' hurtling towards a gasp-inducing conclusion.

Ian Rankin is the multimillion-copy award-winning bestseller of over thirty novels worldwide and creator of John Rebus. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. His Rebus novels have dominated the detective fiction market with the recent BBC television series ensuring the detective’s legendary status.

Image: Teresa Banham, Gray O'Brien and Billy Hartman in Rebus: A Game Called Malice, credit Nobby Clark

On Wednesday 2 October, Bath audience members are invited to join Sir Ian Rankin for an exclusive Post-Show Discussion, following the evening performance of his latest stage thriller at the Theatre Royal. The event will take place after the 7.30pm performance of Rebus: A Game Called Malice and is free to ticket holders of that performance only.

Gray O’Brien stars as Inspector John Rebus. Well known on television for his award-winning portrayal of the villainous Tony Gordon in 285 episodes of Coronation Street, Gray also starred as Dr Tom Deneley in Peak Practice, played Dr Richard McCaig in Casualty and appeared as Alan Redford in The Loch. His screen credits also include Taggart, Shakespeare and Hathaway, the Doctor Who 2007 Christmas Special, Titanic: Blood and Steel and the films The Queen, The Wasting and The Daniel Connection. Gray’s stage work includes Sleuth in the West End; The Sound of Music on UK tour, in which he played Captain Von Trapp; Educating Rita at Perth Theatre; UK tours of Catch Me If You Can, The Case of the Frightened Lady and Dead Simple, and The Magistrate at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Previously at Bath’s Theatre Royal, he has starred in The Perfect Murder in 2014, Dead Simple in 2015, The Case of the Frightened Lady in 2018, Catch Me If You Can in 2022 and Twelve Angry Men in 2023.

Image: Gray O'Brien as Inspector John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice, credit Nobby Clark 

Billy Hartman returns to the role of Jack Fleming, having created it for the stage in 2023. His other theatre credits include Gypsy in the West End, The Confessions of Gordon Brown at the Traverse Theatre and on Scottish tour, The Little Match Girl at the Orange Tree Theatre, Homework at the Battersea Arts Centre and Oliver! at Sadlers’ Wells, London. His television credits include playing the role of Terry Woods in more than 1,100 episodes of Emmerdale, as well as Dal Y Mellt, The Trick, Keeping Faith, Pobol Y Cwm, In Suspicious Circumstances, 99-1 and A Touch of Frost.

Abigail Thaw, who plays the role of Stephanie Jeffries, is best known on television as Dorothea Frazil, the editor of the Oxford Mail in the ITV’s series Endeavour. Her many theatre credits have included visits to the Theatre Royal on tour in Entertaining Angels in 2006, Whipping It Up in 2007, Ladies in Lavender in 2012 and Sheila’s Island in 2022. Her theatre credits also include Anthropology and The Strange Death of John Doe at Hampstead Theatre, Julius Caesar at Sheffield Crucible, The Cutting of the Cloth at Southwark Playhouse, Juliet and her Romeo at Bristol Old Vic and Cymbeline at Shakespeare’s Globe and BAM Harvey Theater in New York. Her screen credits also include Miss Scarlet and the Duke, Sister Boniface, The Nevers, Black Mirror 2, Casualty, Agatha Christie's Poirot, The Stepfather, The Penny Dropped and The Inbetweeners 2.

The cast is completed by Teresa Banham as Harriet Godwin, Neil McKinven as Paul Godwin and Jade Kennedy as Candida Jones.

Image: Abigail Thaw as Stepahnie Jeffries in Rebus: A Game Called Malice, credit Nobby Clark 

Director Loveday Ingram’s many credits include Fatal Attraction, which toured to the Theatre Royal Bath in 2022; The Rover and The Merchant of Venice for the Royal Shakespeare Company; My One and Only in the West End and at Chichester Festival Theatre, which was nominated for four Olivier Awards and an Evening Standard Award; Outlying Islands and Lettice and Lovage at Bath’s Theatre Royal; and the West End productions of When Harry Met Sally and Bedroom Farce. At Chichester, where she was Associate Director for three years, Loveday directed The Blue Room, Dead Funny, Insignificance, Three Sisters and Pal Joey, which was nominated for the TMA and Barclay Awards for Best Musical. Her stage productions in Ireland include Boston Marriage, Samuel Beckett’s Rockabye, an Irish Times award-winning production of Hysteria and Dinner with Groucho at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Belfast International Festival and Arcola Theatre. In 2020 Loveday produced, wrote and directed a short film selected to represent Women’s Aid internationally for the campaign for Elimination of Violence Against Women.

To book tickets, contact the Theatre Royal Box Office on +44 (0)1225 448844 or visit theatreroyal.org.uk.