Incredible as it may seem, this slick and stylish production marks the first ever time that a John Le Carré novel has been adapted for the stage. Television and film, with their greater scope for moody establishing of atmosphere and swift switches of international location, have had this mainstay of the spy genre to themselves for too long and now the live artform is staking a robust claim. 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.
The simple truth is that the majority of plays could do with being somewhat shorter than they are. This one, however, is a rare exception of a work that would benefit from being padded out a little more fully, especially in the early scenes that carefully lay the sprung trap of the plot. I am a great fan of Le Carré’s 1963 novel and thus benefitted from that hinterland of knowledge to plug any gaps, yet I wonder whether those who haven’t read it will be lightly bewildered at times.
Eldridge’s clever conceit is to offer us the culturally familiar figure of George Smiley (John Ramm) as narrator and Smiley establishes the milieu at once. Berlin, the recently Wall-divided city from which our (anti)hero Alec Leamas (Rory Keenan, excellent in his ramshackle charm) has just returned as M16 bureau chief, is a place “where one wrong move could turn a cold war hot”. Leamas is worn out a.