Theatre review: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Back to @sohoplace, the theatre with a name so current it would like to tell you its theories about Scully's abduction, and a play full of a few conspiracies of its own: In what is apparently the first time anyone has ever adapted the work of spy novelist John le Carré for the stage, David Eldridge takes us to 1961's divided Germany for The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Alec Leamas (Rory Keenan) runs the Berlin branch of intelligence agency The Circus, but his East Berlin opposite and hated nemesis Mundt (Gunnar Cauthery) is far too efficient at exposing and eliminating his spies. When his last and best agent is killed, Leamas retires from the agency, disillusioned and disheartened: He starts drinking more, finds it hard to hold down a job, and eventually spends some time in prison after assaulting a shopkeeper for refusing him credit.

Theatre review: Romans, a Novel

I have to say that after some of Alice Birch's previous work, Romans, a Novel was a show I considered skipping; Kyle Soller's return to the stage was the reason I gave it a go, and the weird but thought-provoking epic proves to be worth the gamble. Soller plays Jack Roman, eldest of the three titular brothers, who we first meet as a ten-year-old on what turns out to be the night his mother will die, giving birth to his youngest brother. But first he will meet a blood-soaked soldier, apparently an uncle long since thought lost, who will instil in him a desire to live a certain kind of man's life, full of adventure and exploration. The subtitle "a Novel" is an unusual one to see attached to an original play but Birch's story and Sam Pritchard's production justify it in a sweeping family saga that feels very much like it's immersing the audience into a detailed, intricate story.