Review: The Lady Vanishes at The Regent Theatre*

The Lady Vanishes stage production is based on the original film of the same name, by the iconic Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock. This Thriller has been adapted to the stage by Antony Lampard and Directed by Roy Marsden, and has been presented by The Classic Thriller Theatre Company. We had the privilege of heading to The Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent last night to see it and here’s our review.

About The Lady Vanishes

When Socialite Iris’ unexpected travelling companion Miss Froy suddenly disappears, Iris is perplexed to find that all the other passengers deny ever having seen her. But with the help of musician Max, she turns detective, and together they try to solve the mystery of why the lady vanished…..

Building on the phenomenal decade-long success of The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, The Classic Thriller Theatre Company presents a quick-witted and devilishly fun thriller, based on the 1939 Hitchcock classic, ranked as one of the best British films of all time.

The Performance 

We were sitting just to the left side of the stage, and the show started with a loud announcement in German, which began to set the scene to its pre-war backdrop. The first scene was set on the train platform, unlike the film where it is set in the hotel foyer. I am not sure why they changed this for the play as being on the train platform was chaotic and each character’s introduction was quite fragmented and hard to follow.  However, once the set transformed to being on the train, each of the characters performances was much clearer and began to pick up the pace which made the play more exciting to follow.

The lead characters, of Iris played by Lorna Fitzgerald and Max (Gilbert in the original film) played by  James Boswell, were the anchors of the play. They played their roles in a slightly less dramatic way than their character equivalents in the film, I felt almost with a slightly comic edge, I think I would have preferred the comedy to have been left out, and it to have been made to feel slightly more like the thrill you get from the film. The two characters that really did earn a laugh, were that of Charters, played by Robert Duncan and Caldicott, played by Ben Nealon. These two really had a dynamic connection and were able to bounce off one another with such great timing, that they really made the audience chuckle (for the right reasons). They were old school Posh, with typical of the era British accents, which was perfect for the performance.

The acting throughout by all the characters was exceptional, and the two truly recognisable actors were that of Miss Froy played by Juliet Mills who has performed for the past 76 years in films and theatre and is perhaps most recognisably the sister of Hayley Mills (who was in the original parent trap and many more films throughout her lifetime), and that of her husband Maxwell Caulfield, who plays Dr Hartz in the play, and who is as mentioned known for his role in Grease 2, the stage production of Cage Aux Folles and My Fair Lady, just to name a handful. Although their roles were not the main lead roles, their presence on stage was noticeable. All the characters were really well performed, and overall the performance was enjoyable although not quite as thrilling as I would have anticipated.

The sets were fabulous and worked really well with the context of the play. They also creatively had ways to exit the stage from the train cabins that were lined up, so when they moved down the train and opened the apparently same cabin door different people were inside, which created the flow of movement. I thought this worked well. Equally the transitions from having tables and chairs on the set, replicating the dining car and then going back to the cabins, were seamless and well produced. But where I felt the production was let down was with the sound aspects. The actors were at points difficult to hear, we aren’t sure if this is where we were sat or a general fault with the sound management on the stage. Also, the music that accompanied some of the scenes, seem to simply start and stop midway through the music. It, therefore, felt as though the music was simply an add on rather than being an integral part of the production.

The play is overall an enjoyable one and your evening at this stage performance will be well spent, but detach yourself from the original film as it has a slightly lighter edge, which works, but is perhaps unexpected when you are familiar with the film.