From the mastermind’s behind The Play That Goes Wrong and BBC’s The Goes Wrong Show, Mischief Theatre’s “The Comedy About Spies” is as silly and ridiculous as can be expected – yet, underlying that is a cleverly constructed plot with some superb twists and heartfelt character moments. Continually playing with common spy tropes, the play expertly walks the fine line between knowing when a joke is funny enough to be milked, and knowing when a joke has run its course, meaning the play never grows tiresome despite some moments coming across as a little repetitive. The repetitiveness is intentional, allowing the absurdity and hilarity to grow over time, until the entire scene develops into over-the-top melodrama. What particularly stands out about this production is the fact that the comedy is clever rather than vulgar – the production never needs to stoop to reliance on swearing or innuendo to entertain their audience, making the show suitable for the entire family (although a slightly complicated plot might be a little difficult to follow for younger viewers).
The play sets the tone immediately with a hilarious scene set in the MI5 offices, an almost word-for-word recreation of the snippet played out during last year’s Royal Variety Performance. The jokes come thick and fast that sometimes they take a moment to properly land, and before the audience can erupt into laughter the cast are on to the next thing. Doors are slammed, cases are swapped and alarms are raised – and this is all in the first ten minutes. This is a perfect set-up for the rest of the show, preparing the audience for what they can expect from the rest of the performance, although the rest of the play is pretty much completely separate, leaving the opening scene as its own self-contained sketch.
The “proper” story features three different factions of characters – CIA agents Lance Buchanan (Dave Hearn) and his overbearing mother Janet (Nancy Zamit), KGB agents Elena Popov (Charlie Russell) and Sergei Ivanov (Chris Leask) and hapless British citizens Rosemary (Adele James) and her boyfriend Bernard (Henry Shields), who unwittingly get dragged into the drama when they are mistaken for spies by the Americans and the Russians. Each character has certain characteristics that make them immensely likeable – there are no “goodies” and “baddies” here, and we find ourselves wanting all of them to succeed despite their aims being at odds with each other. Hearn’s Lance longs to finally completely a mission without having his cover blown, Leask’s Ivanov creates an intricate backstory for his false identity, only to be disappointed that no one ever asks him any questions about his childhood, and Shields’ Bernard continually tries to propose to his girlfriend, only to be interrupted every time by increasingly ridiculous situations.
The majority of the action takes place within a London hotel, with Greg Tannahill as hotel manager Albert Tipton, who appears playing several different musical instruments in one of the shows more absurd montages. Dragged along for the ride is Henry Lewis’ Douglas Woodbead (the actor – not the cricketer), who is staying at the hotel whilst preparing for an audition for James Bond. When the spies overhear him rehearsing his lines, it causes much confusion, sending each faction on a wild goose chase that is immensely enjoyable to watch. Lewis can make the audience laugh by doing very little, such is his stage presence and charisma. He is loud, brash and outlandish in his actions, flying off the handle at the smallest of inconveniences, with outbursts that would rival Basil Fawlty.
David Farley’s set design is ingenious, helping to bring to life several different action sequences, including a vertical race through a lift shaft and a showdown on the hotel rooftop. A memorable scene in the opening act sees four rooms stacked on top of each other like a Rubik’s cube, allowing the audience to be privy to goings on in the American, Russian and British rooms, whilst Woodbead rehearses for his audition in the final room. Each room is cleverly colour coordinated so that when bugged radios begin to get swapped between them, the audience can easily keep track of where each one ends up. One slight problem with this set-up is that it causes a few sightline issues for those on the upper tiers – the theatre provides TV monitors to counteract this, but it may slightly dampen the audience’s enjoyment.
The second act is funnier and tighter than the first, offering much more in the way of plot, and giving Shields his moment to shine as Bernard is recruited as a double-agent, then a triple-agent, then a quadruple agent… well, you get the idea. The silliness grows ever more absurd (one character falls down a hole all the way to Australia) but the absurdity can be forgiven because the driving force is all about characters. The characters are so easy to invest in that moments towards the end even drew audible gasps from the audience as one character got injured, and then an “aww” as others got their happy ending.
Above all, the plot is incredibly well constructed. Written by Lewis and Shields, this may be some of their best work. Nothing is wasted, and every throwaway line from the first act becomes important by the end. The reveals at the end are earned, and genuinely surprising, with several twists that I can safely say I did not see coming. This is a superb new entry into the Mischief Theatre canon, and one that I would heartily recommend.
Just remember – it’s always the person you medium suspect!
Tom Morley, May 2025
For more information on how I decide on star ratings, see here: Star ratings – Broken Legs Blog
Review round-up:
The Guardian: The Comedy About Spies Review – 4 stars from the Guardian, who say “the sheer rate of jokes, from groanworthy to dynamite, may leave you crying helpless tears of laughter”
All That Dazzles: Review: The Comedy About Spies – 5 stars from ATD, who claim “Mischief have created a licence to thrill and you don’t have to be a top secret agent to spy that they have another huge hit on their hands”
WhatsOnStage: The Comedy about Spies review – A slightly disappointing 3 stars from WOS, who say “the show could easily lose a couple of minutes from each act without seriously impairing the overall merriment”
Broken Legs Blog 