Spy Movie! The Play! is a glorious parody of every James Bond movie ever produced.
With a cast of four, three of whom multi-role, we’re taken through a rollickingly fun and funny ‘golden era’ spy movie plotline – based very firmly in the era before smart phones and stupid IT protocols.
The framing device is that producer Albert Cabbage needs a fresh injection of cash, and we the audience are effectively at a pitch meeting. On this occasion the audience’s representative is Gary, and at points in the performance the actors break character to ask Gary how he thinks it’s going.
We launch immediately into a trope-filled rendering of everything you loved about Bond movies when you were a kid. Our super secret spy here is Jayne Blonde, who, yes, is a woman, but don’t worry, it’s all very tastefully done.
As a pre-credit action sequence launches into a title track complete with silhouetted Bond Dancing Girls, we learn that the title of the as yet unproduced movie is ‘Definitely Time to Die Again Maybe’.
It’s this level of wordplay, punning, and overall silliness that you should expect for the entirety of the hour. The “movie’s” plot concerns famous author Ian Flemish, and his latest Dick Hardwood manuscript. We’re at least three levels down into meta references at this point, and our faces were aching with how much we were smiling.
As the absurdities, the jokes, the recognisable plot elements and the bizarrely named enemies continue to accrue, the cast give it everything, with puppets, sound effects, a huge range of hats and a multitude of props all being used to trigger memories of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore era Bonds.
The whole endeavour is very, very silly, and incredibly well done, often relying on split-second timing. Some of the creative team were previously part of the ‘…goes wrong’ franchise of theatre shows, and the quality and slickness of those West End productions is evident here – albeit the real world budget is also correspondingly restrained.
If we have any criticism, it is that perhaps the final scene could benefit from a slight revision, but this is a tiny niggle in an overall excellent and assured production.
Spy Movie! The Play! will leave you stirred, and possibly a little shaken – with laughter.
Find out more about Spy Movie! The Play! (and future tours) here.
