Rep theatre is alive and well in this pub attic, where Flywheel are midway through a six-play season. In between last week’s Lysistrata and next week’s Pygmalion is The Lodger, in a version combining Marie Belloc Lowndes’ 1913 novel with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film and adding its own mysteries.
Shadow puppetry is used throughout, evoking luridly illustrated penny dreadfuls and silent cinema, with homages to Hitchcock’s title cards. A killer known as the Avenger is at large: the victims are fair-haired women, their murders on Tuesdays. At one London boarding house – No 13, natch – a lodger (Charlie Woodward) comes under suspicion, a detective (Gabriel Lumsden) gets to work and golden-curled Daisy (Keziah Hayes) is caught between them under the gaze of a maid (Rachel Bardwell).
Actor-adapter-director Jack Robertson’s production, with compelling piano composition by Sarah Spencer, has exaggerated silent-film performances from actors in black and white costumes who mouth their words. Benedict Hastings and Sadie Pepperrell’s puppetry, often for action or crowd scenes, is accompanied by dialogue off stage. The two techniques dovetail well in what is primarily a comedy with some ingenious touches. Its only real chill is ironically a diversion from the master of suspense’s film.
Hitchcock’s lodger was played by Ivor Novello with haunted eyes and a wraith-like delicacy. The character, who here retains a giveaway surname he has in the novel, is played more benevolently by Woodward. The production satirises the age’s misogyny and lust for sensation yet jarringly never grounds the violence in any sense of reality. Unlike in the film, there is no threat in the lodger’s attempt to touch Daisy’s curls nor the detective’s possessiveness.
Hitchcock pulled off dazzling shots like Novello frantically pacing in his room, his soles seen from below as if the ceiling was transparent. On a fringe budget, a more achievable parallel effect to the film is actors framing their own closeups or the wispy fog lit by Brett Kasza. In the design by Rebecca Ward, a candle and vintage lamp set the mood while Daisy’s cloche hat and Clara Bow lipstick evoke the era. An engaging hour in an admirably enterprising season.
• At Old Red Lion theatre, London, until 27 September
