“An endeavoured revival of Hitchcock’s spy thriller”
I’m an open Emma Rice fan. Having watched all her productions at the Globe, and most of her major works since founding the Wise Children theatre company, I’m continually fascinated by her inventive directorial techniques and whimsical creativity. Her adaptations often provide uncanny yet oddly reasonable perspectives to looking into. She’s that kind of director who constantly makes you think: “Can she actually do that? Oh gosh it actually works!”
This time, in her adaptation of Hitchcock’s 1959 spy thriller, Rice once again challenges herself. Compared to her previous productions, which often highlight her delightful and surprising directorial decisions scattered throughout the show, her North By Northwest emphasises a greater commitment to narrative and stylistic unity. (But still, you’ll be awed by her clever staging of the cornfield chase and the Mount Rushmore fight.) Rather than dwelling on suspense, or the film’s existential dark humour, Rice sheds light on the comedic elements of the story through musicality and the ensemble’s fluid physicality, such as Lecoq-inspired techniques of exaggerated hip thrusts and bending waists deeply. To some extent, this production leans more towards to a Shakespearean comedy like A Comedy of Errors, other than a Hitchcockian thriller.
The production thrives on its energetic ensemble of six (Mirabelle Gremaud, Patrycja Kujawska, Simon Oskarsson, Katy Owen, Karl Queensborough, and Ewan Wardrop) playing multiple roles. As ever, Katy Owen delivers a masterclass in performance. A boundless energy resides in her small body as she commands both the role of the crippled “Professor” and the virtuoso narrator, whom you may see as a kind of Hitchcockian alter ego. Having played Bottom in Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe, Ewan Wardrop brings his unique sense of humour to the role of Roger Thornhill, the hapless ad man who is mistaken as a spy. Wardrop reframes Roger as something less than an alpha male, yet still sharp-witted and instinctive.
Rice rewrites Eve’s ending too, giving her not a romantic future with Roger but a more political one, positioning her as a woman entering political life. Themes of female empowerment and social activism have long been integral to Rice, as she also demonstrated in last year’s Blue Beard at Battersea Arts Centre. The final moment after the Mount Rushmore fight, where the cast members pass a vodka bottle one by one and each takes a sip is also classic Emma Rice, where togetherness and connection are often stressed for an aftertaste.
For younger audiences unfamiliar with Hitchcock’s original, the plot may remain somewhat unclear, especially when it comes to the different factions those spies are working for. Owen as both narrator and character, whom Roger can actually see and talk back to, may also add to the confusion. Rice’s North by Northwest is, little doubt, a fun Friday theatrical comfort. But having seen something as staggering, well-thought, and emotionally powerful as Blue Beard, I have to admit I was expecting much more.