After the original sold-out run at Chichester and a popular West End transfer, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold returns to the stage with a new cast. Ralf Little (Death In Paradise, Two Pints Of Lager et al) stars as Alec Leamus in this adaptation of John le Carré’s 1963 spy thriller – an exciting move into a grittier role for the actor.
Leamus, a high-level spy, is disillusioned with the failure of operations in communist Berlin. Control, head of MI6, asks him to take one last job: pretend to have been fired, paint himself as a defector and frame one of Germany’s top agents from the inside. Things are complicated, however, when Leamus meets Liz Gold, and he begins to have feelings that could put the operation at risk.
The Spy… is a really fun night out. The time breezes by, and David Eldridge’s script does an excellent job of carrying you through the action of the story quickly while also allowing for a decent amount of character development. One of the difficulties when adapting a le Carré, however, is setting the tone. The author was renowned for keeping the audience at arm’s length, and hiding knowledge from the reader – a risk, in a theatrical context, and one which producers Chichester Festival Theatre were evidently unwilling to take. Rather, we immediately enter the world of Leamus, through monologues to the audience and seeing his inner world.
Eldridge’s script also tries to achieve a hybrid of classic film noir, modern realism and theatrical conceit. The monologues, though, come across more traditionally theatrical than stylistically noir, causing a twofold knock-on effect of making the noir acting in some scenes seem arch, and the more realistic acting underplayed.
In addition, and partly because of this, the actors aren’t all doing the same acting style all the time: some actors in full noir, others trying to do classic theatre, while others engaging in minimalist stillness. The whole show feels a little confused, though its second half streamlines to focus on action and is better for it.
While the choice to show Leamus’ world is understandable, both to allow the audience to take in information quickly (important when covering such a complicated text) and to help the audience relate to the character, it runs counter to one of the key aspects of the story: the notion that Leamus could cope with running an international branch of MI6. In the hands of Little, he’s emotional, vulnerable and haphazard; it seems impossible to imagine him in a position of such great responsibility. A lot of the inner-world scenes feel overplayed, characterised by lines like “Get out of my head!” Anything this tells us about the character, we’d already gleaned from the real-world scenes.
Little’s is one of many strong performances in The Spy…: highly emotive in places, if a little constrained by his natural northern English accent given the early-60s setting. (Were he to use received pronunciation in work situations and his real accent in others, this might heighten the sense of classism which defines this world.) Nicholas Murchie and Tony Turner are excellent as Control and Smiley, the bigwigs in the world of British espionage – capturing le Carré’s arm’s-length approach to character well, you find yourself loving them both while deeply doubting their intentions.
Tense, engaging and a fundamentally strong story, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is enough of a good night out to override most technical quibbles. As we were leaving, many audience members could be heard enthusing about being on the edge of their seat for the duration – and indeed, if you’re looking to be taken on an adventure, this is the show for you.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Tue 28 Apr
On until Sat 2 May. Tickets: £17-£51. Info: here
words HARI BERROW
