Review: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Reader, I grew up on a diet of John Le Carré, thanks to a Grandmother prone to devouring his works repeatedly. I’ve caught many, probably most of the adaptations, whether radio-play, TV series, or film, and have yet to lose a single iota of enthusiasm for all things George Smiley, The Circus, and beyond.

So it was with some baggage that I walked into David Eldridge’s take of ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’. Could this staged version of this classic, maudlin tale of Cold War spycraft measure up? The answer is a qualified yes.

The basic plot remains intact: middle-aged field agent Alex Leamas (Ralph Little) returns to England after watching his East German network brutally eliminated by Communist assassin Mundt (Peter Losasso). Yet instead of ‘coming in from the cold’, he finds himself sent deep undercover on one final mission to destroy his nemesis.

So it was with some baggage that I walked into David Eldridge’s adaptation of ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’. Could this staged version of this classic, maudlin tale of Cold War spycraft measure up? The answer is a qualified yes.

Events soon escalate way beyond Leamas’s control, his fate and that of his unlikely new girlfriend — librarian and communist, Liz Gold (Gráinne Dromgoole) — hostage to plots deeper and darker than even he guesses.

Pace over pause

Eldridge and Director Jeremy Herrin are keen to emphasise Leamas’s helter-skelter journey across borders and into a faux collapse designed to make him irresistible bait for Soviet agents. There’s little chance of escalating tension as the action cascades through scene after scene. Even with a script that spends so much time in Leamas’s head, whether seeing ghosts of a lost comrade, or conversing with an imaginary version of George Smiley (Tony Turner), the Circus’s legendarily reluctant, yet brilliant spymaster, it’s all words, and very little silence.

It’s certainly a slickly orchestrated production, the cast sweeping on and off stage along with a suitable array of props with military precision. Max Jones’ set, overseen by a towering, barbed-wire Berlin Wall, also sets a simple, effective scene. There’s also Paul Englishby’s sultry jazz score to dress proceedings in a noir-ish sensibility. However, instead of taking time to build the story and to weave the narrative threads, the show assembles the plot in a constant supply of bite-sized chunks. Just like Leamas, the audience is perpetually kept off balance until the big reveal deep in the second act. It’s not a bad theatrical device at all, but a pause here and there to let the weight of Leamas’s mounting crisis sink in, without regular interactions with a fictional Smiley, would help the show feel less rushed.

A formidable Circus ensemble

The cast, however, is pretty darn good. Little makes a particularly excellent dog-eared old spy, whilst Nicholas Murchie invests Control (the Circus chief) with an abundance of genteel polish and shark-eyed ruthlessness. Tony Turner’s Smiley is less effective, though, with a part mostly transformed into a transient figment of the imagination; there’s only so much one can do. More broadly, the ensemble does well whether playing intolerant head librarians, tribunal judges, or helmeted Soviet guards.

The cast, however, is pretty darn good. Little makes a particularly excellent dog-eared old spy, whilst Nicholas Murchie invests Control (the Circus chief) with an abundance of genteel polish and shark-eyed ruthlessness.

There’s too much competence on stage and behind the scenes for ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ to be uninteresting or indeed unenjoyable, and ultimately, matters do play out to their miserable, thought-provoking end. That’s not a spoiler; the happiest of Le Carré’s endings are highly qualified.

Does Smiley really need to get the last word, and are those words just a touch too romantic? Perhaps, but these are small sins. Overall, this is a perfectly acceptable addition to the library of Le Carré adaptations.

All Images: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, UK Tour (c) Johan Persson