The Spy Who Came in from The Cold – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

One of the predominant elements of John Le Carré’s novels concerning British Intelligence is bleakness. A mantle of washed-out grey cloaks the lives and actions of his characters, darker shades representing the shadows in which they are doomed to operate. As his son Nick Harkaway writes in the programme (in contrast with another, cinematically celebrated, agent of ‘the service’) there’s ‘not a martini or an Aston Martin in sight.’  The set (Max Jones) and lighting (Azusa Ono) for tonight’s show reflect this, the barbed-wire topped wall looming mute behind a floor displaying the contorted map of Europe in the early 60’s. The uniforms and attire of all concerned (with the exception of Liz Gold’s turquoise suit in the closing scenes) are relentlessly dour, and in Alec Leamas’s case, appropriately shabby. The soundtrack (Paul English by Elizabeth Purnell) is jazzy and atmospheric, reeking of late, lost nights.

The plot is complex and this adaptation by David Eldridge seeks to bring in the uninitiated by furnishing Leamas with the role of narrator. It’s an ambitious task and making things this clear affects some of the texture and nuance of the story. Ralf Little is excellent (and occasionally funny) but not the frayed and frazzled, denuded Alec Leamas. He just didn’t seem desperate enough, the cocksure quips in the tribunal scene at odds with the gravitas of the situation. Nicholas Murchie (Control) and Tony Turner (Smiley) are chillingly accurate, portraying the ruthless nature of their world but Grainne Dromgoole’s Liz Gold as a post war, pre-swinging 60’s woman is almost too prim and rigid, denying the relationship she has with Leamas any chemistry. With a little more time and a slowing of the tempo, who knows… but maybe this hints at the problem – that the difficulty is not so much ‘adapting’ as ‘condensing’ anything Le Carré to the stage, and no mystery why this is the first work in 60 years to try so.

Reviewer: Roger Jacobs

Reviewed: 21st April 2026

North West End UK Rating: