Image: Johan Persson
The stage adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold opened at Chichester Minerva Theatre on Friday 23rd August, and we are delighted it has received such great reviews.
The Financial Times writes:
'The tools of surveillance loom over Max Jones’s set for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at the Minerva theatre in Chichester: an ugly corrugated tin hut accompanied by a searchlight whose merciless beam sweeps the auditorium at key moments. It’s an image instantly evocative of the cold war and of the grim little fortresses that punctuated the Iron Curtain slicing through Europe.
But for Alec Leamas, the lonely, burnt-out agent at the heart of John le Carré’s great espionage thriller, that edgy fear of surveillance means something more. In David Eldridge’s tense, gripping adaptation, staged with moody flair by Jeremy Herrin, Leamas is never not being watched from the shadows — by his superiors, by his enemies, by the audience. The starkest scrutiny of all comes from his own conscience, which has begun to consume him in a way no enemy ever could. That crisis of identity is at the heart of this intelligent, atmospheric production which fillets the novel, reframing its moral issues for the stage and drawing us into Leamas’s head as his sense of self begins to unravel. Key to this is the way Eldridge and Herrin riff on the parallels between theatre and espionage — the role-play, the rules, the subtext.'
Other reviews include:
'David Eldridge's classy fillet of an adaptation is meticulously mounted by director Jeremy Herrin, creating a loweringly sinister atmosphere of espionage double-dealing against a muted colour palette...This is a fine start to what I envisage will be le Carré's long stage sojourn.' Fiona Mountford, i
'Capturing the seething paranoia of John le Carré's masterly 1963 Cold War thriller, this tight adaptation gets a stylish, cinematic treatment from director Jeremy Herrin. The production's stark, noirish aesthetic is nicely suited to the bleak world of the play.' Dave Fargnoli, The Stage
'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - first staging of le Carré classic is a hot ticket. The novelist’s posthumous stage airing is part of a significant artistic afterlife for le Carré – October sees the publication of Karla’s Choice, a sequel to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, written by the novelist’s son Nick Harkaway and there are enticing rumours of a long-form TV series based on the Smiley novels.' Mark Lawson, The Guardian