Review: North by Northwest

Wednesday, 26th March 2025 at York Theatre Royal

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

North by Northwest is the latest whirlwind from Wise Children and it’s quite a ride. Totally in keeping with Emma Rice’s flair for the unexpected, inventive, and fun, this show really goes out on a limb to put its own stamp on the Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller.

It’s 1959 and the suave Roger Thornhill (Ewan Wardrop) finds himself suddenly caught up in a pretty serious case of mistaken identity. With a Big Bad Guy (Vandamm, played by Karl Queensborough) and a gaggle of heavies (Mirabelle Gremaud as Anna; Simon Oskarsson as Valerian) after him, Thornhill must out-run and out-smart the baddies. And what do you know, just as he’s catching his breath, he bumps into the mysterious Eve Kendall (Patrycja Kujawska) and needs to factor theft of a heart into the mix. It seems only The Professor (Katy Owen) has the kind of answers Roger needs to escape the jaws of doom…

It’s a predictably cracking cast of course, helmed by the indefatigable Owen, who narrates, jollies us along and guides Roger with a comic air of cantankerous impatience at key points (also getting big laughs for fleeting minor roles). Wardrop is pretty magnetic too, impressing both as dancer and tragi-comic unlucky lead, giving a wry smile as he delivers one of many unexpected musical moments, while Kujawska does a fine job as the archetypal seductress with secrets (and takes the crown for Most Extroverted Suitcase Delivery).

Karl Queensborough is a top villain but shines a little more brightly as the shrill mother of Roger, Oskarsson brings layers of comedy and frustration as the dismissed minion, and Gremaud once again steals scenes with her multi-disciplinary performance, singing, acrobat-ing (if that’s not a word, it should be) and whipping up a storm as she goes.

Emma Rice adapts and directs, and takes a decidedly bold and slightly whacky approach. How do you keep an audience locked in and following a winding plot like this? You get your comic narrator to do a bit of call and response of course (with Owen excelling in the part of Comprehension Tracker).

How do you avoid the fatal flaw of laboured dialogue while the audience are impatient for the next burst of action? You insert many a dance sequence, of course. Need to liven up that key exchange? Tap it out – literally. Need a bit of light relief while this pair sup their melancholic bevvies? Get your waiters to conjure strange shapes with their bodies while they’re delivering that top-up. It’s left field and a bit distracting at times but heck, it does its job and nobody can say attention spans wander or entertainment wanes with this one – it’s a pretty genius brand of bravery, even if it does take the tale a fair way away from its origins.

Generously musical, the show also benefits from perky, quirky, pulsating compositions from Simon Baker alongside a raft of classic voices (Simone, Fitzgerald and Holiday? Heaven…) to which the cast lip sync in yet another layer of whimsy and gentle comedy. Movement director and choreographer Etta Murfitt’s talent is given a bright spotlight in this piece, with sequences frequently centre stage but also filling background transitions and moments of pure quirky theatricality.

It’s all a bit deliciously meta too, with various asides about acting and characters looking alike alongside the making of “SFX” and props before our eyes – having fun while simultaneously still doing justice to the story at hand. Set design helps a good way too, with Rob Howell creating liminal space with a series of revolving doors  slickly moving us between scenes, helped along by suitcases announcing locations with loud labels (delivered by incognito types behaving eccentrically in joyous moments of contradiction).

If you’re seeking an edge-of-seat, bona-fide spy thriller or a sense of deep messaging, you might find yourself wanting here – but if you’re up for an evening of proper theatrical entertainment which tells a good tale with fun and flair, give this one a go.

North by Northwest is at York Theatre Royal until 5th April 2025 – more information and tickets can be found here.