Thriller at Leamington’s Loft touches our soul’s dark places

Alex (Paul Atkins) is a middle aged academic who has discovered fragments of Hitchcock’s very first film shot in 1919. He persuades his bright young student Jennifer (Sarah Kyffin) to accompany him on a holiday to Greece, in part to examine this rare filmic treasure, but of course with an affair in mind.

The play flips back and forth between these scenes and the second strand of the story, Hitchcock’s relationship with a woman, known only as Blonde (Karen Brooks) who is to serve as Janet Leigh’s body double in the film Psycho. She is a wannabe actress desperate for a way out of her relationship with her violent husband (Chris Cortopassi). But underlying this is the mysterious relationship Hitchcock had with another female character (Ruth Herd) who is glimpsed in the fragments of the legendary lost first film, Uninvited Guest. These fragments suggest the origins of Hitchcock’s sexual neuroses.

Darren Scott’s subtle direction makes good use of filmed projection. There is a continuous sense of unease as we watch the twists and turns of the characters’ obsessions. The blondes are by no means dumb, and they have their moments in this battle of the sexes, but ultimately they are victims, loved in the main for their look. We, the audience, are of course implicated.

The play is full of references to Hitchcock’s films and is in a sense an homage, though fans may find the praise somewhat qualified. It is a clever, complicated thriller, intelligently performed and often funny, which touches dark places in the soul and raises lots of questions, just as Hitchcock’s films did.

Nick Le Mesurier