North By NorthWest - Theatre Review

I originally saw the stage version of “North By Northwest” as a part of the Adelaide Festival Centre program in early 2019, directed by Simon Phillips. This touring production is now on at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre until the 3rd of April 2022, with David Campbell in the lead role. In light of this, I thought I’d upload my review (below) of my experience of the Adelaide show at the Festival Theatre.

Hitchcock gets a fully realised stage show of his iconic 1959 Film “North by Northwest”. The thrilling presentation is complete with romance, sizzling surprises, comedy and of course, Bernard Hermann’s luscious classic score. Starring Matt Day, known fondly for much 90’s Australian film and TV work - is the lead as Roger Thornhill. Amber McMahon plays Eve Kendall. This incarnation is directed by Simon Phillips and adapted by Carolyn Burns.

By the well-worn but economical conceit of mistaken identity, a New York advertising executive, Roger Thornhill, is pulled into the shadowy world of spies and mistaken for a man named Kaplan. Foreign spies wish to eliminate Kaplan, now on the run Roger meets Eve Kendall - together they fight across country to clear his name. Most, if not all, of the dialogue from Hitch’s film is retained here as I’d recently also seen the film on the big screen as part of a retrospective.

The production begins with quasi opening titles whereby many passengers from a train hold A4 pieces of paper (with a large letter printed on each) which rapidly changes as the performers find themselves in the correct spot to spell the title “North By Northwest”. It’s attempt is to imitate the rapid-fire letter changing schedule boards at train stations and airports. It’s accompanied by Bernhard Hermann’s frenetic score, and even complete with an Alfred Hitchcock (lookalike) cameo!

Amber McMahon of “Girl Asleep” for Windmill Theatre as well as its film adaptation, is not just comic aplomb here; her uncomfortably emotive face in the auction scene is dramatically phenomenal, whilst her employer Vandamm (Jonny Pasvolsky) gently squeezes the back of her neck. It’s a great scene and highly unsettling and suspenseful. While Matt Day is a perfect everyman for the role that gains sympathy and is adept at the physicality and comedy required for the role, yet Cary Grant’s suave charms are mostly missing, but I guess, there’s only one Cary Grant.

The recreation of all the iconic set pieces of Northwest is superbly demonstrated in the stage design and use of special effects. Miniatures of trains, planes and buses are super-imposed, via a blue screen onto the accompanying makeshift windows of the set or enlarged onto a big screen towards the back of the stage that the actors interact with. It’s a very nifty design, and with a front row seat I was clearly able to see the ingenuity at work and timing of the performers and stage hands behind this orchestration. There’s a lovely irony, in that Hitch used many miniatures in his early 30s/40s British works such as “Young and Innocent” etc.

The suspense-filled scene at Vandamm’s house is superb; it really ratchets up the tension to almost unbearable levels - whilst giving the audience the feelings of the vertiginous height of the home when Thornhill breaks into it. This scene also echoes Hitch’s bird’s eye view shots to evoke this uneasy vertiginous feeling, by way of the unique set design.

The show’s climax is of course the chase scene atop AND down the Mount Rushmore Monument. The set-up of the superimposed images of the facial figured monument is highly comical, using a man’s actual nose etc (again using the technique mentioned above) that the characters appear to make their way down from. The sequence, thus garnered many laughs from the audience.

This is a big warm smile of a stage show that’s fun, self-deprecating and has its tongue firmly in its cheek. The obvious affection for the film and the maestro Alfred Hitchcock is obvious across the board. To me, it’s all like something out of a most pleasant dream.

4.5 Macguffins out of 5

*Half a star off for the pieces of paper they scrunched up from the opening titles and threw at the audience, landing in a large paper mess at my feet and those seated in the front row - which was not cleaned up for the entirety of the show. Can the Sydney performances PLEASE do something about this. Thanks so much.