Review: NORTH BY NORTHWEST, Alexandra Palace

Photo credit: Steve Tanner

Emma Rice’s North by Northwest is a stylish, witty and engaging homage to its source material.

Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint. An assassination at the United Nations headquarters and a thrilling chase across the heads of Mount Rushmore. It is no wonder Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest is iconic. So is it a wise move to mount a musical adaptation for the stage? It certainly is when the adaptor and director is Emma Rice, magnificently supported in her endeavours here by her company, Wise Children.

The action of North by Northwest revolves around advertising executive Roger Thornhill being mistaken as a government agent and assassin, becoming entangled with the dubious Phillip Vandamm, and getting pursued across the United States. While on the run, he falls for the enigmatic Eve Kendall, and when Thornhill finally discovers that she is actually an undercover agent, the race is on to try and save her from Vandamm’s clutches.

The key roles of Thornton and Kendall are brought to life on stage here with style and panache. Ewan Wardrop is suitably urbane as Thornton, with a lovely recurring movement motif reminiscent of the famous scene of Thornhill running through that cornfield. Thanks here to Etta Murfitt’s spot-on movement direction that evokes a sense of the 1950s throughout. Patrycja Kujawska’s Kendall embodies the epitome of a Hitchcockian blonde, looking fabulous in a black and red Dior-style dress and, thankfully, with more agency than in the film.

Rice’s adaptation retains the fundamental plot of Thornton’s mistaken identity and the Cold War intrigue of never being certain of the allegiances of the other characters. North by Northwest thus aligns perfectly with Rice’s enjoyment of manipulating roles and gender. So while Karl Queensborough delivers a strong performance as the villainous Vandamm, he is equally delightful portraying Thornhill’s mother.

Simon Oskarsson and Mirabelle Grimaud relish their roles as Valerian and Anna, Vandamm’s sidekicks, seamlessly transitioning into other roles as necessary, and complete the core cast of six.

Although the film is classified as a thriller, it is replete with wit, and it is the humour that Rice brings to prominence in her adaptation, aided significantly in this by the role of The Professor, portrayed by Katy Owen, whom fans of Rice’s work will have encountered in other productions. In a significant departure from the original script, The Professor is expanded upon by being given with lines taken from the screenplay’s stage directions, and so has to do a lot of the heavy lifting of keeping the storyline together. Bringing her charm and quirkiness to the fore in the role, Owen effectively holds the plot together, cheekily checking in with audience members on whether or not they are keeping up. On stage for much of the time, not even she gets away with having only one role to play.

One of the enduring attractions of the film lies in its reminding us of cinema’s ability to evoke spectacular moments before the use of CGI. Similarly, Rice’s production revels in the magic that theatre can create with minimal means. Suitcases, besides being used to signify locations, transform into automobiles, bookcases, or ticket booths, while revolving doors transport us from cocktail bars to hotel rooms and even Grand Central Station (set and costume design by Rob Howell).

No spoilers here about how the famous crop-dusting plane chase is recreated but suffice to say, it brings gasps of delight and applause from the audience.

Simon Baker’s musical interludes enhance the narrative by illuminating the characters’ inner thoughts and emotions at pivotal moments. What transpires in Thornhill’s mind when trapped in the elevator with his would-be assassins? Or when Kendall grapples with her dilemmas? The tongue in cheek answers involve lip-syncing and dancing to 1950s classics from the American songbook.

Rice’s North by Northwest works well because it feels so collaborative in its construction and execution. For instance, a crucial scene between The Professor and Thornton on a gloomy runway (lighting by Malcolm Ripreth) combines important expositional dialogue with movement and costume manipulation to create such a sense of the characters battling against the wind that you grin throughout.

Towards the end, the plot and script do deviate somewhat from the film, and the overall tone turns sombre. The changes here focus on pointing up the relevance, still, of the film’s serious themes of threats to world peace and it feels a little heavy-handed (notes by Rice in the free online programme cover these points well). But the delight the cast take in making their curtain calls quickly restores the audience to the gleeful mood of the evening.

Fans of both film and theatre alike will find much to enjoy in this humorous and chic production of North by Northwest.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Mike Askew

North by Northwest plays at Alexandra Palace Theatre until 22 June, with further info here.