Review: Spy for Spy at Riverside Studios, London

Tuesday, 20th June 2023 at Riverside Studios, London.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reviewer: Emma Dorfman

Note: one minor spoiler below…

Spy for Spy derives from an important, dramaturgically tight, concept: ‘love on shuffle’. The idea is that life, and our memories of life’s events, don’t occur in a linear fashion. So why should we present this on stage—a venue in which we frequently ‘hold a mirror unto nature’—in lineated terms? This is much of what is discussed in writer Kieron Berry’s programme notes, and it’s nothing entirely new (see Maria Irene Fornes’ thoughts on post dramatic structure and its relation to the everyday). In fact, actors Olive Gray (Molly) and Amy Lennox (Sarah) are perhaps so skilled that you can hardly tell the audience chooses a different order of scenes each night.

Aiding this are several moody, soft, and carefully directed (Lucy Jane Atkinson) transitions that maybe draw you in even more so than the longer—at times a tad too long—scenes that bracket them. In each of these transitions, we see the history of Molly and Sarah’s story all over Lennox’s face. She consistently embraces Sarah’s surprisingly dark inner life, showing us more about the couple’s love story than often the scenes do.

The scenes themselves (again, always in a different order, each night to be decided by the audience) are often smart and quippy. Barry’s writing is sharp and quick-witted, and the characters he has crafted are just cliché enough to be relatable (I think Molly strikes me as Bonnie from Big Little Lies) but also branch off in ways that add depth to an otherwise purely entertaining comedy. I won’t spoil the plot too much, but it is surprisingly tragic, and the reversal is just as sharp as the witty repartee between the two women. For all the comedic genius that some moments pack (see the wedding scene, in which Sarah gripes about the pompous, stuck up, Yo Yo Ma-like violinist, only to discover at the very end that he happens to be Molly’s fiancé), it punches you that much more in the gut when tragedy comes knocking.

On the other hand, there were few peculiar moments in which the characters could potentially prove unlikable. In the first scene on the night I was there, a scene in which Molly and Sarah miraculously end up at the same wedding, Sarah seems smitten with Molly already, and it’s a bit difficult to understand why. Molly is quite dismissive of Sarah, and she tells people to ‘fuck off and die’ like it’s a term of endearment. As we get to know her throughout the piece, however, we come to embrace her for the softer and wackier parts of herself.

Overall, there are elements of Spy for Spy that verge on cliché, and then there are sharp, surprising reversals that edge against the usual contemporary comedy. Gray and Lennox’s performances, coupled with Atkinson’s direction, allow the script to shine to its fullest potential, bringing a unique humanity to a somewhat uneven script.

Spy for Spy is at Riverside Studios until 2nd July 2023 – more information and tickets can be found here.