A window frame, a large leather armchair, liquor on a side table, and Michael Freeman’s (S) perfectly clipped accent introduced the audience to Richard Hannay, the dashing cliché central to the plot of John Buchan’s adventure novel. This comic adaptation ran as a four-hander for nearly a decade at London’s Criterion Theatre, audiences riveted by the pratfalls arising from so many parts being played by so few actors. Director Julian Freeman maintained the same spirit for the Carthusian patrons while dividing up the roles to compound the choreographed chaos. There were a total of thirty bodies treading the boards although, admittedly, four of them were sullen stage-hands who were hilariously conspicuous as they reluctantly corrected their own graceless blunders.
Hannay, bored of life, decides to take a trip to the theatre where he witnesses a performance of Memory Man - flamboyantly portrayed by Cameron Dejahang (S) - and ends up allowing Annabella Schmidt, a gun-brandishing femme fatale, to hide overnight in his apartment. One melodramatic death later and Molly Baxter’s (D) Schmidt has been assassinated leaving Hannay in a most inconvenient predicament. Armed only with a map of Scotland and some sketchy information about a man missing part of his little finger, he goes on the run.
Arriving in Edinburgh, he discovers that a couple of coppers are searching the train for him; the diminutive truncheon-wielding Morten Younie (H) had the audience in stitches as he struggled to clamber around the set while castigating bystanders in his well-observed Scottish brogue. A fall from the Forth Rail Bridge marks the second of Hannay’s unlikely series of escapes. He takes brief shelter with Margaret McTyte – Fleur Keeble (V) – before her pious husband – Chris Willis (P) – betrays him. Next he finds himself at the house of Professor Jordan – Jamie Stapleton (S) – where a party is in full swing. Special mention has to go to Rohin Modi (F) whose sound operation had to be exquisitely timed to manage a recurring gag involving an imaginary door and a Dixie band. Before long, the Professor’s accent slips from Scottish to German, he reveals he can’t account for all ten of his fingers, and he shoots Hannay dead.
The Second half, energetically kicked off by Koman Lau (W) and Nyasha Kunorubwe (P), begins with an explanation of Hannay’s extraordinary survival. He escapes again, only to find himself introduced on stage at a political rally by side-splittingly slow geriatrics, Igor Mikulik (R) and Oscar O’Kane (R). Another capture and escape and he is handcuffed to Pamela – Claudia Namor (g) – and staying overnight at a hotel run by Mr and Mrs McGarrigle. Rapha Redfern (G) and Toby Richardson (g) thoroughly enjoyed portraying these eccentric Highlanders.
Somehow, suddenly, we are back in London at the theatre where it all began. It turns out that Mr Memory is the key to everything, which is especially surprising since the character doesn’t feature in John Buchan’s original text.
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