Richard Baron loves this sort of tease and you have to have your wits about you to keep up with who’s who and what’s what. You can miss something even by laughing out loud, as four actors dextrously switch in and out of role to play a parade of characters from Irish nuns to corrupt policemen.
It’s a complex spy plot that gets more elaborate as the desperate hero digs himself an ever deeper hole. Simon Shepherd relishes the role of Wormold, the vacuum cleaner salesman recruited as an unlikely secret agent by Hawthorne, the archetypal man from the ministry.
Hawthorne is immaculately played by Philip Franks, who with a swift change of accent also plays the spied-upon Hasselbacher. Norman Pace pulls out all the stops as the Havanan nasty, Captain Segura, and gets some of the most outrageous cameo roles, including a wicked appearance as British royalty. Beth Cordingly gives delicious performances as everything from Wormold’s Catholic daughter to his prim secretary, Beatrice.
Cylinder vacuum cleaners suspended in flying formation are a clue to Wormold’s fictions to keep Whitehall happy. Ken Harrison’s versatile set enables the action to hop from the bars of Havana to a Jamaican beach and the sterility of Maida Vale.
Much of the fun comes from well-executed mime, whether it’s hand-washing under imaginary taps, stepping through imaginary windows or simulating moving transport. There’s a mad business lunch and an even more insane game of chequers. It’s fast-moving, tongue in cheek and quite surreal in parts.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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