Review: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, UK tour | Glasgow
- Lisa in the theatre
- May 27
- 5 min read
An excellent adaptation of a complex le Carré spy thriller that is often more clever and visually impressive than riveting.
The new play based on John le Carré's breakout novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold stars The Royle Family's Ralf Little. It plays at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, until Saturday 30 May 2026. Read my review below.
John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (play) ★★★☆☆
Review: 26 May 2026 | Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Some novels don't translate well to the stage, and John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a tricky one. It's a complex Cold War spy thriller with so many double-crossing, back-stabbing schemers and espionage tactics that honestly, if I'd been reading the book at home, I would probably have taken a ton of notes to try to keep track of all the characters and threads.
Published in 1963, the novel was an international bestseller and was responsible for allowing le Carré to leave his career in the British Intelligence Service to become a full-time author. Set amongst the heightened tensions of 1950s and 1960s Cold War Europe, the play does an excellent job of adapting the intricate source material into a 2-hour, 10-minute-long play (including interval) without losing the essence of the plot nor diluting le Carre's obvious real-world espionage knowledge. But it does make for tense, sometimes challenging viewing in a large theatre environment. I'm sure I missed an important plot point every time someone coughed in the auditorium.
The story of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold begins in Berlin, where, just a year after the completion of the Berlin Wall, British Station Head Alec Leamas (Ralf Little) witnesses the murder of his friend and best undercover agent, Karl Reimeck. With his team wiped out, Leamas "comes in from the cold" - i.e., he returns to England intending to retire from The Service.
But Leamas is immediately talked into doing one final mission for "The Circus" - a fictitious British Intelligence organisation - that should see the head of the East German Secret Service, and the man who murdered his friend Hans-Dieter Mundt (Peter Losasso), ousted from power.
For his undercover operation, Leamas begins working as a library assistant, where he meets Liz Gold (Gráinne Dromgoole) - an idealistic young woman who he soon discovers is a member of the Communist Party. The two become romantically involved and tragically caught up in The Circus' perilous plans.
The first le Carré story to be brought to life on stage
Le Carré wrote 28 novels which, between them, have been made into eighteen major films and TV adaptations, but The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the first of his novels to make it to the stage. You'd have to hope that the late le Carré would be delighted with this thoughtful adaptation by David Eldridge with its first-rate production values and accomplished cast.
The new UK tour production of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold is advertised as coming to regional theatres "direct from the West End", and I think that is clear in Max Jones' top-quality design. The central stage is simple and unchanging, but the magnificent design on the stage floor alongside Azusa Ono's creative, modern lighting fills the open space with intrigue. Looming at the back, the ever-present, towering, ominous Berlin Wall. It's a visually impressive setup, and it needs to be because the play is dialogue is heavy.
The audience do need to use their imaginations to relocate the action from Leamas' dingy London bedsit to a library and back and forth to murky Berlin. But there's a clever use of lighting cues to indicate when Leamas escapes into his own mind. It can be confusing at times, and I'm sure I didn't follow every nuance of Jeremy Herrin's implied direction, but he does well with such a tangled story that hops across both geographic and time borders.
The stage play version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold probably would benefit from having a bit more room to breathe. There's a lot of plot and many twists crammed into the show, the pace is fast, and the onslaught of dialogue is relentless. It's impossible to build serious tension because of the rush to move on, and the result is a play that's not always as thrilling as it should be.
The talented cast do an incredible job of rattling through the narrative with Ralf Little in the lead role of Alec Leamas and Nicholas Murchie as Control, the head of The Circus, particularly impressive in their composed, compelling deliveries.
A well-crafted and performed, but bleak play
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is le Carré's third novel, and the third to feature mysterious, brilliant spymaster George Smiley (Tony Turner.) Le Carré excels at writing ambiguous characters and exploring the depths of psychological espionage, and Smiley is the perfect example of that. My only experience of Smiley up until now was Gary Oldman's iconic portrayal in the film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. But I found him fascinating in this play; A powerful presence lurking in the shadows that I want to know more about. Seeing this play has made me want to read the book - and in fact, all of the books - featuring the devious Smiley pulling the strings.
I enjoyed The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as a play; it's an excellent adaptation of a very complex spy novel, but it is often more clever and visually impressive than riveting. Despite being well-crafted and performed, the tone is undeniably bleak, and for that reason, it's not one I would rush back to. It may fare better with fans of the novel who come pre-armed with knowledge of the plot and have to work a little less to keep up. ★★★☆☆
MORE: also playing in Glasgow this week - The Bodyguard, the musical. Read my review here: https://www.lisainthetheatre.com/post/the-bodyguard-musical-uktour-review
MORE: read the full cast announcement for the UK tour of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold here: https://www.lisainthetheatre.com/post/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold-cast
The UK tour production of John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is at the Glasgow Theatre Royal until Saturday 30 May, and then it continues on tour through 2026.
Tickets from atgtickets.com/Glasgow
More UK tour venues via ATG Tickets: https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold/
Comments