Review | The Spy Who Came In From The Cold at The Minerva: 'Great entertainment'
As the Summer season at Chichester wends its way towards the end, next up is David Eldridge’s adaptation of John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, playing in The Minerva.
Now – I’m a complete le Carré novice and came to the piece with as open a mind as possible, so let’s get the negatives out of the way, because there’s a lot of positives about this piece.
I’m not certain Eldridge’s adaptation is as good as it could be; at times the complexities of le Carré’s very involved plotting become lost in a haze of real-time and memory – a character can be having a conversation in the now at the same time as he’s having a conversation in the past. Involved plotting needs clarity, not theatrical cleverness, to keep the audience in tow. There were one or two directorial choices that didn’t seem clear (there’s a bank of chairs upon which random characters sit for a while to observe the action. I didn’t quite get the thinking behind it so I’m sure others didn’t either).
But then we get to the actors. Oh, blimey.
Let’s start at the top.
Rory Keenan gives an absolute blinder of a performance as Alec Leamas. He convinces as the cynical spy whose thought-processes, emotions, indeed his whole life is controlled by the training instilled in him. For fear of it upsetting some political balance, he can’t even bring himself to tell the woman he clearly loves that he loves her. Keenan is never off the stage and never, once, does his power falter or his thought process wander off course. Absolute top-dollar work here.
Also John Ramm as George Smiley, with some interesting double-casting as Karden, an East German legal-type, is a tightly-controlled and sharp as a nail. The two performances are poles apart and, both, beautifully constructed.
Agnes O’Casey holds her own against Keenan as the love-interest-cum-political-pawn, Communist party-member Liz Gold and Gunnar Cauthery as the potential Communist double-agent gives a very understated and controlled performance. His playing at the end following the revelation as to whether he is (or isn’t) that double agent (no spoilers here!) is beautifully done.
The ensemble playing by the rest of the cast (particularly Norma Atallah) is excellent.
Is it great theatre? No.
Is it great entertainment? Most definitely. Go be entertained.
Until September 21. Tickets from cft.org.uk.