31 January – 5 February

Dan Brown’s 2003 mystery thriller about the race to uncover the secrets contained within the Holy Grail, potentially revealing the true bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, has all of the hallmarks of a contemporary conspiracy theory. Now on a 37-theatre tour, adapters Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel’s staged version of Brown’s best-selling book, presents a lively new take on a murky world of quack religiosity, symbolism and obsession.

Luke Sheppard’s production is a breathless two-hour Wild Mouse ride – I suggest you choose coffee over wine at the interval so you can keep up with the baton-changing bad guys in the second half, not to mention the stream of codes and conundrums that our heroes, Professor Robert Langdon (Nigel Harman) and police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Hannah Rose Caton) encounter along the way.

The play stays largely faithful to Brown’s original, beginning with the gruesome murder of Louvre curator Jacque Saunière, whose body is found in the shape of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the sign of the pentangle scrawled in blood across his naked chest. American symbologist Langdon is summoned by the Paris police to help them decipher the meaning of their grizzly find, little knowing that he is their prime suspect. An inspection with UV torches reveals a baffling sequence of numbers and Langdon’s name daubed on the ground, the dying man’s last act.

Aided by Saunière’s granddaughter Sophie, the two realise they have no choice but to outwit and outrun both the police and the dark forces of Opus Dei, who have exploited the self-flagellating psychopathic monk Silas, played with real menace and anguish by the excellent Joshua Lacey, to procure the whereabouts of the Holy Grail at any cost. A pell-mell dash ensues through a swirling mash-up of plots and counter plots, with shades of The Raiders of the Lost Ark, if at times The Famous Five, as it reaches its climax back at the Louvre’s inverted glass pyramid via Westminster Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel.

Harman’s Langdon and Caton’s Neveu never have much time to really develop their characters in depth – there is always just one more puzzle to solve, another scrape to escape from. A brief interlude on Sir Leigh Teabing’s (Danny John-Jules) private jet offers a rare peep into their inner workings as Langdon probes the reasons for Sophie’s past split from her grandfather, while she explores the reason for Langdon’s claustrophobia. 

But with set designer David Woodhead’s lovingly realised Louvre setting, with many subsequent flown-in props – church columns, tombs, country house and private jet interiors working in perfect tandem with video designer Andrzej Goulding’s animated numbers, symbols and sky, the production always had enough oomph to keep the audience on side. 

Despite some of the silliness – some conveniently quick deciphering and finding of keys, accompanied by enthusiasm that might be associated more with junior television presenters – the cheering crowd at last night’s performance was solid proof of an evening enjoyed. 

★★★☆☆ Simon Bishop  1st February