A spoof that succeeds without a Hitch

Based very much on the Hitchcock film rather than John Buchan’s novel  – hence the title – it somehow has to make, among other things, a train journey to Scotland, a man dangling from a railway bridge and planes chasing a man across the Scottish highlands seem convincing on the boards of a relatively small theatre, and yet, somehow, with a great deal of good humour and improvisation, it more or less pulls it off.

Very much in the spirit of the Riverside Studios’ hit Operation Mincemeat – but not quite so sublimely funny – the plucky cast led by Tom Byrne as Richard Hannay do wonders doubling, trebling and quadrupling up to play the vast number of characters. 

Patrick Marlow’s adaptation of the script to the Hitchcock film – based on the show’s original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon – moves at a suitably breakneck speed and Byrne is on great form as Hannay and Safeena Ladha as a number of romantic foils. Along the way, Jacob Daniels makes a very promising West End debut in a number of guises.

The show, directed by Maria Aitken, is becoming something of an institution, beginning life at the old Tricycle Theatre in 2006 before taking up residence at the Criterion for almost a decade. This latest revival shows there is still a lot of life left in it.

Sadly, too, its premise that there are people in our midst “who will stop at nothing” to bring about an end to our values and way of life remains every bit as valid as when Buchan wrote the original novel in 1915.