Spies without the 00
11:04pm Monday 14th April 2008
ALAN Bennett's double bill, under the title 'Single Spies', is a world away from Ian Fleming's James Bond.
'An Englishman Abroad' is Guy Burgess, one half of the infamous pair who defected to Moscow in the 1950s, leaving a scandalised Establishment to wonder who else was implicated in the network.
The play centres on an encounter between the flamboyantly gay,shambolic drunkard that Burgess has become and the matinee idol Coral Browne, during her theatre tour to Moscow in 1958.
And, in 'A Question of Attribution', Bennett delves deeper into the shadowy world of the spy.
This time it is Anthony Blunt, only revealed as the fourth man in the Burgess/Philby/MacLean spy ring in 1979.
Again the plot centres on a brief encounter. Blunt, as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, is examining a painting to determine if it is genuine. The Queen unexpectedly joins him and they discuss fakes and forgeries - "I was talking about painting," muses Blunt ... "but I don't think she was."
Nigel Havers and Diana Quick inhabit the central parts in both plays with ease and charm, effectively conveying the sense of a half-forgotten world and a time that's almost vanished from memory.
Havers makes the transformation from stained slob to impeccably suited snob as superbly as Quick's indomitable queen of the stage becomes Her Majesty.
And both make the very most of Bennett's witty dialogue.
The production runs at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, April 19. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or click on the link below.