11 – 22 August

When writing about spy thrillers one is always wary of the barbed wire spoiler alerts that prevent open exegesis. In one sense of course, we know the outcome of the Cold War, but given that this play is based on a Le Carré novel we sense that there is more going on than the Byzantine machinations played out in the hall of mirrors that typified east-west relations. However a good yarn is different from a good play.

Great atmospheric and psychological writing does not easily translate onto the stage where ‘showing’ is as important – if not more so – than ‘telling’. The first half of the show is given over to the setting up of a ‘Circus’ (MI6) sting designed to discredit a supposedly troublesome adversary in the GDR. This involves the central character, Alec Leamas (Ralf Little) establishing his credentials as a disaffected ex-spy ripe for turning by the East German security service.   Mr Little’s Leamas is a brittle cynic with a vein of class consciousness that sits none too lightly on his shoulder. The generally gloomy atmosphere of David Eldridge’s adaption is if anything darkened by the murky and mirthless characters that inhabit the half hidden world of espionage. This is a world where nothing is as it seems and everyone is playing a role. All that is except the librarian, Liz Gold (Gráinne Dromgoole) the politically naive and innocent librarian whom Leamas falls in love with.

The grim life behind the newly erected Berlin wall that looms over the set for much of the time is suggested by the bleak surroundings of Max Jones’ industrial style set with interrogation spotlights and the low, pressed metal lamps of lighting designer, Azusa Ono, that bob menacingly up and down. Any jeopardy that actually threatens on the page is lost in the who-what-why-when and where details that lie in wait to befuddle us as an audience.

Director, Jeremy Herrin’s attempts to free the play from the inevitable two dimensionality by having George Smiley (Tony Turner) loom above the stage, peering into Leamas’s life (or was it in his head?) and over the Berlin wall was a device that seemed to me little more than that. However Leamas’s attempts to keep Liz Gold away from the morally vacuous world he inhabits brings a certain clarity as one of the central themes of the play.

★★★☆☆        Graham Wyles       12 August 2026

Photography credit: Johan Persson