Whenever Emma Rice brings a play to York Theatre Royal we anticipate what surprises she has in store for us.

By Angie Millard

Photos by Steve Tanner

Since forming her company, Rice has always used interesting topics and investigated novels or films but never a play. She prefers to investigate other media and to use what she calls her ‘storytelling lens’ to produce a truly innovative production without the strictures laid down by a playwright.

North by Northwest is no exception, but Rice describes it as one of the hardest challenges of her career. We have grown to expect novel theatrical devices and Rice works with designer Rob Howell’s intricate set of moving pieces to create a vision, using revolving doors, suitcases to denote characters or locations, telephones and newspapers declaring headline events.

She has cast Ewan Wardrop in the role played by Cary Grant. His amazingly mobile body, elegant in a drape suit, encompasses the glamour of the times. A narrator played by Katy Owen is a mannered professor who also moves with stylish agility; they engage with the audience in pantomime mode, injecting corny humour and comic narration. All the characters use synchronised movement to dance their way through the story adding a cartoon like quality to the action where stereotyped villains mirror the intricate Hitchcock plot. They mime to recorded music ignoring the gender of the vocalist.

Overall the play is an immensely entertaining, novel and clever piece; Rice provides satisfying solutions to the scenes in the film where the hero is dive bombed by a crop dusting plane. To achieve this she uses pictures of the plane mounted on  poles carried by the cast. Mount Rushmore becomes a popup paper sculpture in a suitcase and a pile of cases built up in front of images of the engraved presidents. Nothing is impossible! 

But in the last 20 minutes, Rice adapts her style, and the play becomes something different. The characters still  move around the space while the narrator steers the action towards a final message of the hope felt by people after the Second World War and presents a picture of the original story relevant to our times. It was set in a post-war era where the Cold War loomed. Rice examines the damage of this threat and the attempt to create a new, better world. But fear not, there is much humour evident and at times one is reminded of the successful production 39 Steps which also employed a hectic style and clever devices without any messages. 

Emma Rice, her designer Rob Howell, and the talented cast demonstrate just what can be done in contemporary theatre.

Please do not miss this show.

North by Northwest is being performed at York Theatre Royal until 5 April 2025.

Cast:

Anna – Mirabelle Gremaud

Eve Kendall – Patrycja Kujawska

Valerian – Simon Oskarsson

The Professor – Katy Owen

Phillip Vandamm – Karl Queensborough

Roger Thornhill –  Ewan Wardrop

Creatives:

Director and adaptor – Emma Rice

Designer – Rob Howell

Composer & Sound Designer – Simon Baker 

Lighting Designer – Malcolm Rippeth

Choreography – Etta Murfitt

Fight Director – Kev McCurdy