New podcast episode: Patrycja Kujawska on Wise Children's North by Northwest; The Mousetrap reaches 30,000 performances; Bill Kenwright tribute in Liverpool; Epstein Theatre reopens
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1204: 23 March 2025
Editorial
If you were going to put a Hitchcock film onto stage, there are some obvious candidates: Rear Window is, by necessity, largely in one location, and some, such as Dial M For Murder and Rope, were plays before the master put them on screen.
North By Northwest, which was in some ways Hitch’s second attempt at The Thirty-Nine Steps, does, however, offer some challenges, the most obvious being when Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is attacked in the middle of nowhere by a crop-spraying aircraft, and the finale when he and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) escape the baddies by climbing down the faces of Mount Rushmore.
Despite this, Emma Rice has adapted the film for the stage for her company Wise Children, and a new Emma Rice production is always something to look out for. It opened this week in York—I’m hoping to catch it next month in Manchester—and so I spoke the week before to Patrycja Kujawska, who has a long history of working with Emma (which we spoke about a bit) but on this occasion is playing ‘Hitchcock blonde’ Eve Kendall.
Yes, I did ask her about the plane and Mount Rushmore, but she wasn’t giving anything away, other than to say it is achieved very theatrically, and that they use a lot of suitcases.
From the new to the old, Philip Fisher has looked this week at the announcement that The Mousetrap has passed its 30,000th performance on the West End, which is certainly a milestone, but is it still an achievement? I believe Dame Agatha Christie (who, amazingly, was a year younger than my grandma, who would have been 136 on Tuesday) didn’t consider this her best work, but once it had become known mainly for its longevity, it became a London tourist monument. Announcing the closure of The Mousetrap would be a bit like announcing that the Tower of London was to be turned into luxury flats.
And guess what: I still haven’t seen it. I admit I’m curious, but when I’ve been looking for something to see, there seemed to be no urgency to see it and more interesting things on which to spend my ticket money.
Moving back up north, Liverpool Empire is this year celebrating its 100th anniversary and was apparently the favourite theatre of Liverpool-born theatre impresario—and former chairman of Everton FC—Bill Kenwright, who died in 2023. As a tribute, during a run of his most successful production, Blood Brothers—which of course is set in the city—the theatre unveiled a bust of Kenwright by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy.
Also in Liverpool, the Epstein Theatre is older than the Empire but has had quite a checkered history, having been dark from when it closed in 2005 as the Neptune Theatre to its reopening in 2011 renamed after the late manager of the Beatles. However, it closed again in 2023 after the city council withdrew its funding, but it has been announced this week that it is to reopen on Brian Epstein’s birthday, 19 September.
The Epstein joins the Coliseum in Oldham as a North West theatre that seemed to have closed for good reopening this year, which is something to celebrate.
The full casts have been announced for the first two Festival Theatre productions of Chichester's new season: The Government Inspector and Anna Karenina.
Macbeth (Dickens Theatre Company) - Floral Pavilion, New Brighton, –
Death of a Salesman (Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Raw Material) - Lyceum Theatre, Crewe, –
Of Mice And Men (Octagon Theatre Bolton, Derby Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre & Theatre By The Lake) - Octagon Theatre, Bolton, –
Pig Heart Boy (Unicorn Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and Children’s Theatre Partnership) - The Lowry, Salford, –
Tambo & Bones (Actors Touring Company, Stratford East and Royal & Derngate, Northampton in association with Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman) - Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool, –
Spitfire Girls (Tilted Wig and MAST Mayflower Studios) - Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, –
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Stage Entertainment, Joop van den Ende and Tali Pelman, in association with Tina Turner) - Sunderland Empire, Sunderland, –
Room on the Broom (Tall Stories) - Forum Theatre Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, –
The Moth (Elysium Theatre Company) - The Witham, Barnard Castle,
Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest (Wise Children, York Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse) - York Theatre Royal, York, –
