Rory Keenan as Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold [Johan Persson]

REMARKABLY, David Eldridge’s adaptation is the first to bring John le Carré’s best-selling novel to the stage. It’s a complex tale of Cold War intrigue, marked by betrayals and unexpected twists.

Disillusioned British intelligence officer Alec Leamas (Rory Keenan), head of the Berlin station, is called in from the cold, but agrees to one final mission.

He is persuaded by Control (Ian Drysdale) to pose as a disgraced spy defecting to East Germany in order to spread disinformation and undermine intelligence chief Hans-Dieter Mundt (Gunnar Cauthery, who calls to mind Vladimir Putin). A former Nazi, Mundt killed Leamas’s last agent, Karl Riemeck (Mat Betteridge), at the Berlin Wall.

To prepare, Leamas must first establish his cover in London – taking menial jobs and serving prison time. During this period, he begins a relationship with Liz Gold (Agnes O’Casey), a librarian and young communist whose idealism contrasts with his cynicism.

Once dispatched into enemy territory, Leamas feeds information suggesting Mundt is secretly working for the British. This plays into suspicions already held by Fiedler (Philip Arditti), Mundt’s deputy, and a tribunal is convened with Leamas serving as witness for Fiedler’s case. But in this world nothing is as it seems, and individuals are disposable pawns in the greater power struggle.

Eldridge’s adaptation is occasionally clunky and strips away some of le Carré’s nuance. The first half of Jeremy Herrin’s uneven production relies heavily on narrative exposition at the expense of emotional depth, leaving Leamas’s relationship with Liz under-developed.

Still, a strong cast elevates the drama. Leamas’s face-off with Mundt in the stronger second half raises the stakes, and a brutal torture scene is viscerally powerful.

Until February 21
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