By Sandi Masori in San Diego
When I first heard that North By Northwest was coming to The Old Globe, I wondered how on earth they were going to do something so big in a live theater setting. After all, if you remember the 1959 spy thriller by Alfred Hitchcock starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, you will remember that there are trains, planes, and Mount Rushmore.
For the play, in its North American debut, (adapted and directed by UK Jewish community member Emma Rice), scenic designer Rob Howell came up with a clever way to take us to all the various big locations. Keeping the stage mostly open, there are four sets of oversized revolving doors that move around the stage to represent various locations, the train, the hotels, the jail, the CIA headquarters, etc. At the back of the stage is a long clothing rack, filled with suit jackets and clothing. Under that is a series of briefcases and suitcases, all lined up.
Every time the location changes, or they need us to know which character an actor is portraying, they bring out a suitcase that has the location name on a sign attached to the suitcase. It might say “CIA headquarters” or “Plaza hotel” or “The Professor.” One of them, labeled Mount Rushmore, opened up to reveal a tiny Mount Rushmore to set the scene. There is even a thrilling and dangerous climb up a mountain made of suitcases. Who knew they could be so perilous!?
A quick plot summary for those who haven’t seen the movie: In 1959 NYC Ad exec Roger Thornhill (Danny Collins) gets mistaken for another man named George Kaplan, and the foreign spies who were after Kaplan begin to chase Thornhill instead.
Though he has no idea why he is being pursued he sets out to find the mysterious George Kaplan with the goal of clearing his name. The only problem is, George Kaplan never existed, he is a decoy set up by the CIA to keep the dastardly bad guys from discovering their number one spy who has infiltrated the enemy’s camp. Then you have the lovely Eve Kendall (Patrycja Kujawska) who tries to help Thornhill escape, but she is not exactly what she seems.
To make sure the audience stays with the story the entire time and doesn’t get confused, the comedic and charismatic Professor (Katy Owen) narrates and breaks the fourth wall to point out people or things that the audience needs to know. Owen also provides some comic relief and gets the audience to engage in call and repeats.
The pacing and style of the whole production is different from anything I’ve seen before. The choreography by Etta Murfitt was really amazing. The actors are so bendy, glidey, flexible and graceful as they acted out high action sequences in slow motion or convincingly ran in place to catch a plane or run away from one. It’s absolutely brilliant and extremely effective. Add in clever lighting design by Malcolm Rippeth and you have a hit.
The show is also really funny- especially the physical comedy. There was a high LPM ration (laughs per minute.)
I mentioned in the headline that it’s not exactly a musical, but there is music and dancing. Every so often, to move the story along, the actors will start lipsyncing to old-style songs. To make sure you kmow it’s lip syncing, the men lip sync to female singers, and the women to male singers. It’s a little weird the first time it happens, but once you get used to the unusual performance of it, it works. There was even a clap-along at one point.
Props also go to the other actors, who each wore multiple literal hats; Evangeline Dickson, Simon Oskarsson, Bryony Pennington, and Karl Queensborough- the entire company is incredible.
At the end of the day, this is one of those shows that words just won’t do justice and I highly recommend you see it for yourself.
North By Northwest plays at The Globe through August 2.
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