Stage Dragon – The Lady Vanishes – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Published on: 12 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 12 Feb, 2019

The cast of The Lady Vanishes

Two swastika banner flags dramatically unfurl either side of a German eagle on a well-constructed railway station set, complete with misty, steam engine smoke. This is the scene that opens The Lady Vanishes, a play based on the 1938 Alfred Hitchcock classic film.

It is an impressive start which conveys, as it is meant to, a sinister oppressive atmosphere, after all, we are in Nazi-occupied Austria.

The plot involves the disappearance on a train of a lady, Miss Froy, played by Juliet Mills, and the frustration of her new young friend Iris, played by Lorna Fitzgerald, who no one will believe when she reports that the lady has vanished.

Fortunately, she is befriended by a smitten fellow passenger Max (Matt Barber) who is eventually convinced that Iris is telling the truth.

But the realism is not sustained. As in the film, the characterisation seems over the top from the outset and any suspension of disbelief quickly comes to a halt.

Perhaps in 1938 the threat of another war was too dreadful, too serious, too frightening to be portrayed too realistically. Perhaps the tongue in cheek approach was intended to poke fun at fascists, prick their pomposity and diminish their threat, which it does.

This is not a thriller it is a comedy thriller, a nostalgic one at that, which for those of us of a certain age, only wanting an unchallenging couple of hours of entertainment is just fine.

The large cast led by Juliet Mills and her husband Maxwell Caulfield, and watched by Yvonne Arnaud patron Dame Penelope Keith, put in solid and energetic performances.

Also featured are Robert Duncan (Drop The Dead Donkey), Philip Lowrie (Dennis Tanner in Coronation Street) and Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier).

The Lady Vanishes runs to February 16. For tickets call the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Box Office: 01483 440000 or visit: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk

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