Credit: Steve Tanner
One of the gritty spy thrillers that defined Hollywood’s golden age of cinema reimagined through the power of song and dance? With bundles of physical comedy thrown into the mix too? If that doesn’t sound like the recipe for a perfect night out at the theatre, then I really don’t know what does.
The iconic 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film that inspired this show, has been revered for decades due to stunning set pieces — that include a crop duster plane colliding with an oil tanker, and a fight to death on the slopes of Mount Rushmore — and its gripping writing. While exceptional writing is something that we’ve come to expect from award-winning director Emma Rice and her theatre company Wise Children, as evidenced by their recent production of Wuthering Heights and Blue Beard here in York, the very idea of bringing a crop duster plane into the enclosed space of a theatre stage poses a brand-new challenge.
The answer was much simpler than you’d imagine. Three people carrying banners (with pictures of plane parts on each) chase our hero Roger Thornhill, as the brilliantly talented Ewan Wardrop (who plays Roger) zig zags around the stage in slow motion trying to escape. Despite the obvious hilarity of the situation, the scene retains enough of Hitchcock’s intended drama to keep the story moving. Which is quite the achievement.
At its heart North By Northwest is a story all about mistaken identity — as Roger, a rather ordinary advertising salesman, is mistaken for a CIA informant, then abducted and before he knows it he soon finds himself at the heart of a cold war conspiracy.
This production, with its cast of six actors, pays perfect homage to that. Ironically though it is Ewan Wardrop who is the only actor to play only one role, while all those around him constantly change. Through fluent costume changes and shifts in their accent, they move from personality to personality as easily as they walk through the series of sliding doors that make up the largest section of the stage design.
Of the shapeshifting actors, Katy Owen is the obvious standout. Her role as the narrator is vital in bringing each scene into the next, and as for the other three roles she played (that I managed to count), she brings equal charm and humour to each.
From the opening scene to conclusion, North by Northwest really is a triumph. There is engaging acting, set design that transports you back in time, and a script that’ll simultaneously keep you on the edge of your seat whilst also knocking you back for plenty of laughs.
It’s on at York Theatre Royal from tonight until the 5th of April. Head to www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/north-by-northwest/ to get your ticket before they all sell out. You won’t regret it, we promise!
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