ALFRED Hitchcock’s film version of John Buchan’s 1915 novel is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, and every subsequent iteration is judged by this 90-year-old behemoth. So perhaps it is no surprise that a member of the audience, leaving Salisbury Playhouse’s terrific new production of the Patrick Barlow four-handed version of the play, commented: “Well, it’s not as good as the film” – even though she was looking back 90 years!

The story of Richard Hannay and his spectacular journey calls for all sorts of settings, and so the design is both complicated and challenging. The stage for this touring production is a marvellous mix of wood and metal, allowing for railway trains, theatres, elegant apartments, offices, hotels, railway stations, menacing streets and of course even the Forth Bridge to come to life before our eyes. And when it comes to airborne acrobatics, there are two of the most delightful planes I have ever seen.

All this ingenuity was in the hands of designer Libby Todd and a skilled team of painters and prop makers. The wood panelling which is such a versatile feature of the production has been painted (by Rod and Sally Holt) to resemble delicate marquetry. Over it tower the “metal” girders of the iconic Scottish bridge. The scene is well and truly set.

Three of four actors take on more than 50 characters between them during the frantic course of the action. The fourth, Mateo Oxley, personifies the suave, handsome Englishman Richard Hannay, unexpectedly awakened from his world-weary life by a clarion call to save his country. In so doing, he’s not off stage for a nano-second as he meets glamorous women, bumbling policemen, dastardly spies, cleverly-camouflaged conspirators and very peculiar Scottish hoteliers, not to mention a “professor” with an even-more-peculiar wife.

It is pure slapstick, in which attention to micro-timing and detail are all important, and in Ryan McBryde’s co-production for Wiltshire Creative, Bolton Octagon and Colchester Mercury it gets just that. Visually exciting, it has a witty soundscape, atmospheric lighting and inspired performances, by Mei Mei MacLeod as the femmes fatales and Danielle Bird and Phil Yarrow as the clowns. Specially memorable are Phil’s professor’s wife and quick change railway staff and Danielle’s theatre MC, and hotelier. There are just too many wickedly incised characters to mention.

It’s huge fun, brilliantly done.

 

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Photographs by Alastair Muir