Director: Emma Rice
It’s 1959 America and Hitchcock’s spy thriller North by Northwest is about to get the (almost) spoof treatment, as Emma Rice’s adaptation infuses the classic story with a dose of gentle humour, choreography and even lip synching.
Wise Children and Rice, having taken on the fairytale of Bluebeard in a previous visit to York Theatre Royal, have now taken on a film of epic proportions that includes scenes with a crop-dusting plane, a climax atop Mount Rushmore and more than one gun-toting fight scene. It is a film jam-packed with multiple locations, complex narratives and memorable performances, so a straight reconstruction on stage would never have worked. This production, however is anything but a straight reconstruction. It leans into physical theatre and Fosse style choreography to create a stylish and slick piece that makes intelligent artistic choices made at every point.
Rob Howell’s set is beautiful, based almost entirely around four huge 50s style revolving doors, the type you’d see in Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s, and these manoeuvrable pieces of stage furniture become bars, doors, walls, windows and reception desks. Couple them with consistently clever use of an array of many beautiful vintage style suitcases, suits, hats and coats and you have a brilliantly flexible and adaptable staging set up that responds to all of the (many) location and setting needs of the film. So much thought has gone into the set and the way the actors transport the pieces around the stage, it is like watching a beautiful game of chess or Tetris even, as they fit together and pull apart to reveal different destinations. Add in a crop duster plane created using over head banners and the recreation of the requisite train, bus, oil tanker and car and you have a real sight to behold.
All six actors move skilfully around the stage, with most changing character more than once – this well-oiled team know exactly where to be, when. Different accents are adopted and dropped superbly, dependent on the characters needed for each scene. There is a lot to keep up with, and the small cast of Mirabelle Gremaud, Karl Queensborough, Simon Oskarsson, Katy Owen and Patrycja Kujawska weave their characters into and out of the narrative, around protagonist Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant in the film) played brilliantly by Ewan Wardrop.
Is this show an out and out thriller? No. Is it a full on comedy? Also no. It is a mish mash of both, and this works successfully for the most part, but what it doesn’t make for is an easy watch – the audience are expected to listen carefully and remember, they are tested on their memory skills through occasional audience participation and it is definitely a twisty, turny, slightly confusing storyline to follow. But it also jolly good fun and the pay off at the end is an excellent speech made about the post-WW2 era and the subsequent Cold War that is hauntingly relevant to today’s society.
This show doesn’t know quite what genre it sits in, but it is funny, silly and stylish and that’s enough of a recipe for success.
Runs until 5th April 2025
