Brighton Festival 2025
North By Northwest
Wise Children
Genre: Adaptation, Drama, Theatre
Venue: Theatre Royal Brighton
Festival: Brighton Festival
Low Down
Much of the dialogue from the film is maintained, with some witty updating and audience interplay by Rice. So too is Cary Grant-style tailoring and cocktail culture. If the film was a Dry Martini, tense and full of jeopardy, the play is more Bacardi Breezer, light and fruity.
Review
You can enjoy Wise Children’s inventive adaptation of this minor Hitchcock classic as surface pattern. The verticals of Rob Howell’s striking set, gliding into formations suggesting the office, the bar, or the hotel where the scenes take place. The bodies, shape-shifting in choreographer Etta Murfitt’s glorious mash-up of period and contemporary dance moves. The carefully defined red and white lighting that adds a splash of colour to an otherwise muted period palette, reflecting off glass and pin-pointing the shining faces of the actors.
To dig deeper you need, as Katy Owen’s sharp tongued Professor insists, to pay close attention. This is a convoluted plot, with double-crossings at every turn, centred on mistaken identity which pitches womanising salesman Roger Thornhill (solidly played by Ewan Wardrop) into a world of high stakes political intrigue and messy romance.
Director and adaptor Emma Rice loves to bring big stories to the stage in new ways. North by Northwest offers less to connect with than some previous productions such as Bluebeard (the parlous treatment of women) or Wuthering Heights (ditto) but the six strong cast do their utmost to transmit. With quick fire dialogue and character doubling we are moved along at pace, the narrator keeping us on track with rather too many recaps.
As in TV’s The Prisoner, we need to find out Who is Number One, why world peace is at stake, and will the sultry Eve (a strong Patrycja Kujawska in femme-fatale red) stick by her man? Much of the dialogue from the film is maintained, with some witty updating and audience interplay by Rice. So too is Cary Grant-style tailoring and cocktail culture. If the film was a Dry Martini, tense and full of jeopardy, the play is more Bacardi Breezer, fruity and crisp.
With its clever stage business and dynamic performances (Mirabelle Gremaud’s effortless back-flips) the show is always interesting but light on emotional punch. The most heartfelt moments are in lackey Valerian’s (Simon Oskarsson) unrequited ache for his boss, the arch-villain Vandamm (Karl Queensborough) whose subtle gestures say more than words. The cast lip-synch and dance impressively to a range of fantastic 1950’s songs but these become repetitive and can’t replace the vitality and vulnerability of live voices. We need to care for the characters rather than admire the performances.
“You overplay your roles Mr Caplin” says Vandamm to Roger Thornhill (mistaken for Caplin, who doesn’t exist – keep up!) Even with the dramatically lo-fi recreation of the film’s famous crop spraying scene and the final switch to grand-scale and relevant political messaging, Vandamm’s line seems to hold for the show.
