An exposition-heavy adaptation saved by the twisted plot
A global best-seller for over six decades, the 1963 Cold War spy novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold has finally made it to the West End. Written by ex-spy John le Carré, this novel has been adapted for stage by David Eldridge and follows a sold out premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre.
The story is set at the height of the Cold War and follows Alec Leamas (Rory Keenan), a British intelligence officer who is sent to East Germany to undertake one last mission to take out his nemesis Mundt (Gunnar Cauthery).
Always tough to engagingly truncate the plot of an intricate novel into just 2-hours, unfortunately Eldridge has struggled here. The first act of this play is painstakingly exposition heavy, with moments of tension earning chuckles from the audience instead of edge-of-your-seat silence.
The entire plot relies on the deep connection between Leamas and his newfound lover, Liz Gold (Agnes O’Casey). Leamas risks it all for Gold, which is deeply unbelievable in this adaptation. Spending all of one evening together with zero chemistry that ends in Keenan angrily thrusting O’Casey away after kissing for a couple of seconds, it’s hard to believe anyone here is in love.
While Keenan is an impressive force, he produces a hugely unlikeable Leamas, with no charm or rakish qualities that lend an audience to feel tenderness towards a bad-boy hero. It is O’Casey who brings authentic emotion and likability to her role, creating a believably naive leading lady.
The second act picks up tremendously, with all the telling out of the way, director Jeremy Herrin can finally get to the showing. The plot peeks through the exposition and reveals itself to be fantastic, with an ensemble of fabulous actors to pull it off. Philip Arditti is an engaging and sometimes humorous Fiedler while Cauthery remains a stoic and easy to hate Mundt.
Movement direction by Lucy Cullingford is exceptional, with a highly believable torture scene really bringing the second act into focus. The fabulous new theatre that is Soho Place is the perfect setting for this piece, with Herrin using the fantastic sightlines to create a piece in the round where you don’t miss any of the action, no matter where you are.
When speaking on adaptations, le Carré said that his only hope is that audiences ‘share some of the emotions that the reader experiences when he closes the book’. Whilst it may have taken some time to get there, with a spectacular ending like that, it’s hard not to feel something.