The only trouble is, Wormold wants a quiet life, drinking with his friend, Dr Hasselbacher, and keeping his high-maintenance daughter, Milly, happy (played by Campanale and Rosa Collier, respectively). What’s left is the backbone of the story, with its sleazy and dangerous Cuban policeman, Captain Segura (Tullio Campanale, utterly hilarious), plus uber-posh British agent, Hawthorne (Hamish Lloyd Barnes), recruiting our reluctant hero, vacuum salesman, Jim Wormold (a spirited Alex Holley). Some modern notes are thrown into the script for good measure (Wormold, worried about being poisoned, turns down food, claiming he’s a vegan and can only eat gluten-free). But this production is about 90% faithful, only trimming elements that can’t be squeezed into an hour, like explaining cipher codes. Here, the household prop, which is sold by a vacuum salesman turned accidental British spy, has as many ingenious uses as there are laughs in this comedy.Īs a Graham Greene fan, I had been prepared to encounter a play that drifted far from the text of his novel – something that several film and stage adaptations of Greene’s work have done. Have you ever seen a vacuum cleaner become a coat stand, a bar, a phone and a dog? All these are possible, and many more transformations too, in Our Man in Havana, by Spies Like Us. A real treat from a talented young cast this wouldn’t be out of place in the West End. Five actors bring Cuba and London to life with incredible comic timing and choreographed moves.
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