Following a critically acclaimed Fringe season in 2024, Norwich Theatre are delighted to announce the highly anticipated return of Spy Movie: The Play to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We sat down with writers, Jack Michael Stacey and Matthew Howell to discuss the upcoming production.
With a premise that’s part Bond movie, part Fringe madness, what’s the balance between satire and homage in the show’s tone?
Jack: It’s a delicate dance. We love spy movies—especially the stylish absurdity of Bond and the intensity of modern action thrillers—but we also recognise how gloriously over-the-top they can be. Spy Movie: The Play! is both a send-up and a love letter. We poke fun at the tropes because we adore them: the gadgets, the one-liners, the global stakes. But at the same time, we treat the genre with genuine respect. It’s not parody for parody’s sake—we want audiences to feel like they’re in a spy movie, even while laughing at how we pull it off.
Matt: The best parody always comes from a love of the subject, famously Mel Brooks thought there were already too many Frankensteins in the world until Gene Wilder pitched him a unique take on the familiar: It turned out to be one of the greatest comedies of all time. So I think a healthy dose of homage really helps to underpin the madness you want to create. Also whilst parody is essential to the movie plot, the journey of the people making the show allows us to satirise, other elements of the genre, filmmaking and theatre in general. So it creates quite a unique experience for the audience.
From your time working on The Play That Goes Wrong, what did you bring to Spy Movie that makes it uniquely your own?
Jack: The Play That Goes Wrong is brilliant because it’s a serious murder mystery that completely unravels in front of you. What makes Spy Movie different is that it’s not going wrong—it’s just wildly ambitious and hilariously impossible. The characters are trying to make a full-on Hollywood blockbuster live onstage, with almost no resources and a lot of chaotic enthusiasm. The comedy comes not from failure but creativity: how do you recreate a high-speed train chase on a fringe theatre budget? One of my favourite sequences in the show is our epic chase through the French Alps, across the rooftops of a moving train. We use every trick in the theatrical book (and a few new ones) to pull it off. How do we do it? You’ll have to see it to believe it.
Matt: The Play That Goes Wrong is such a funny play and audiences love it. So being able to perform in it is a wonderful experience as you really learn how to make an audience laugh. During the show and in rehearsals before anything goes wrong there is always strong emphasis on many fundamentals of comedy including, clowning, physical/slapstick and improvisation upon which the show is then built. So whilst the comedy in Spy Movie: The Play! is unique in attempting to deliver a Hollywood Movie to the stage. I think a reverence to these same core comedic principles also runs through our show.
The show is a hilarious take on a spy movie script—how do you create such a high-energy comedy while keeping the story coherent?
Jack: One of our main goals was to tell two compelling stories at once. First, there’s the movie: a classic spy thriller following Ian Flemish, a frustrated novelist trying to kill off the hero of his bestselling books so he can move on to more “serious” writing. He’s swept into the real world of espionage, led by our fearless heroine Jane Blonde. We wanted this to feel like a genuine spy film—full of danger, emotion, and momentum. But layered on top of that is the story of the actors making this movie: a driven Writer, a deluded Producer, a Stuntman-turned-lead, and an earnest Actress who thinks she’s landed a film role. Each of them has their own arc that connects to the story they’re telling. Sometimes the lines blur, but by the end, we hope the audience feels like they’ve been on a thrilling, emotional journey—just with a lot more confetti, cardboard, and chaos. It’s a celebration of story and imagination, challenging both the performers and the audience to keep up and lean in.
Matt: This is an excellent answer from Jack, I would also add that we have been working on the script for a long time and the show was first performed in 2023. So with each new iteration here is a chance to refine and develop the show.
What challenges did you face in turning a genre known for its slick, high-budget action into a low-budget, laugh-out-loud theatrical romp?
Matt: Whilst being able to subvert the slickness of an action movie is a great mine for comedy, it’s also important that the audience are invested in the story. Also creating a good comedy is a serious business and the timing of jokes, physicality and construction of the show has to be slick underneath the surface, otherwise it would all fall apart and not be funny.
Jack: We set ourselves the task of making a blockbuster on a fringe budget—and that’s both the challenge and the joke. It’s the classic “what if we put on a show in the barn” energy, but dialled up to 11. Spy movies are full of spectacle—car chases, helicopters, underwater fights, outer space escapes—and we do all that. Just… differently. Our approach embraces DIY theatrical magic: party popper explosions, shadow puppets, Barbie dolls, and a lot of costume changes. The fact that it’s impossible is what makes it so satisfying. The more the audience sees what we’re trying to do, the funnier it gets when we somehow manage it.
How does the audience become a part of the story—what role do they play in this interactive, chaotic presentation?
Jack: Every night is the most important night of our characters’ lives, because the audience is playing the role of Hollywood producers who’ve come to witness this “movie” in action. That means the stakes are sky-high, and everything has to be perfect… or at least entertaining. While there are moments of audience interaction, the real connection comes from the fact that the show is built for you. Your energy shapes the performance. And because things can (and often do) go off-script, no two nights are ever quite the same. If something unexpected happens—and it usually does—we roll with it. That’s the fun. It keeps us on our toes, and the audience right there with us.
If Spy Movie: The Play! had a secret agent gadget for the cast to use during the show, what would it be and how would it make things even sillier?
Jack: It would have to be the “Plot Hole Patchifier™”—a top-secret device designed to instantly fix any story inconsistency, missing prop, or forgotten line. Shaped like a giant glittery glue gun, it shoots out exposition, stunt doubles, or sudden costume changes at the press of a button. Of course, it malfunctions constantly, sometimes making things even worse, but that’s half the fun. Like everything in Spy Movie, it’s held together by hope, gaffer tape, cable ties, and a ridiculous amount of commitment.
Matt: The never ending battery. Because then I would never forget to charge the LASERS!
Spy Movie: The Play will be at the Edinburgh Fringe and tour the UK this summer. Tickets are available here.