The entire play took place on the game show set, and the audience voted (electronically, via buttons at each seat) at the end of each act on whether they thought the Ingrams were guilty.
The direction (by Daniel Evans) was better - much better - than the writing, which depended a little bit too much on you having an opinion about the case going in (I didn't - I'm British, but I was living abroad and studying for exams at the time, so the story had passed me by). As a piece of theatre, it was flashy, entertaining, and a bit shallow and gimmicky (I have to say "flashy, entertaining, and a bit shallow" seems to be the defining characteristic of most of James Graham's work).
The TV version is longer, and - unusually - all the better for it. It feels more like a piece of storytelling, whereas the play felt a bit like being presented with a summary via flashcards. On the other hand, I thought Gavin Spokes was better as Charles Ingram in the play than Matthew McFayden was in the TV version. |
