Revealing Harry Lime: The Third Man, Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre, London

Boldly I went in search of The Third Man, as a musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre. Already I felt in full spy mode in a new area of London for me and in trying to find the theatre by building number alone! It’s not on the helpful local maps in the street, so clearly a super secret location.

Immersive in subtle ways — you enter through a postered lobby with a small sign stating ‘No Austrians may use these hotel facilities’. The ‘in-the-round’ stage has piles of rubble and the audience are literally fenced in, although these are dilapidated. Sit in the right space and the cast will run past you, as well as involving you in the denouement shoot out scene! But you may also be trying to laser view through pillars at points as the cast occasionally block each other and the audience and could be further forward at points to show all the action to everyone.

Cluelessly I came to this musical having never seen the movie or read any Graham Greene, so totally relied on the musical to tell me the story and who everyone was. Deprived of Midge Ure, ‘ 80’s synths, heaps of dry ice, literally Vienna meant nothing to me, but the musical surely showed me!

Not sure when it’s set — Post-War? But which war — World War One or World War Two? Fashions looked 1930s rather than ‘40’s. Though women’s hair seemed to be late ‘30s-40s? Occupied defeated Austria was an unidentified post-War mess with lots of characters mourning lost grandeur and glory. Equally mourning was Western writer Holly (Sam Underwood) as he’d come to Vienna at the summons of his dear friend Harry (Simon Bailey) — only to find out that he was recently deceased in mysterious and nefarious circumstances. Channeling Richard Hannay, Holly turns unasked for detective, determined to solve his friend’s murder as well as rather creepily hitting on his best friend’s grief stricken girlfriend Anna (Natalie Dunne). (Even faking a lecture delivery, just like Richard Hannay). Everyone looks suspicious in a dark suit — who can you trust? Can we even trust Holly’s view of things (especially when he’s so sleep deprived and can’t pronounce anything?) Conflictedly, Anna resists Holly’s saving her and sending her to Paris, remaining loyal even when Harry Lime turns out to not be who everyone thought he was — or even where he was!

Working their stage set for all its worth, characters run around a lot in the dark escaping evil Russians and underworld criminals and brutish British soldiers, at points. The Ferris Wheel is created in a genius way as is the creative nightmare sequence where the whole cast cram round a bed on wheels and literally oppress the sleeping Holly. He utterly cannot escape his troubled thoughts.

The nightclub sequences were full of energy, but overall the songs lacked either memorability or toe-tapping qualities. However we did get that zither music! and a fantastic Harry Lime reveal. The singing was excellent and loved a skittering of nightclub numbers through the scenes. But was it Weimar-esque or about to hit the Cold War era? (Regardless the men had great style in this musical).

Equally astounding was the use of sound throughout, creating a chase through a dank drain with really minimal props and adding all the time to the sense of place and time. The pace is gripping too. And how they get the grave scene up and running is a brilliant use of set.

However, I didn’t really buy Anna and Holly suddenly going from grief to love in a few lyrics. He came across as pestering and obsessive, wearing her down in a creepy way rather than devoted and romantic. This relationship needed a bit more time or a few more lyrics to make it feel less than stalky. But I did love Harry Lime — his speak singing was terrific, although I never quite got why they went up on the Ferris Wheel. Surely this cried out for a fight and someone hanging off of it in peril? Also add some fairy lights for a proper fun of the fair moment! Be that as it may, he was terrific and even died dramatically, even if they did just get on the Ferris Wheel car, hang about a bit for a sing-chat and then saunter off again.

Equally dramatic and powerful was Sam Underwood’s singing — he did a wonderful job of swishily running around in the dark a lot of the time and not stepping on any of the audience! Also keeping us all going with him in his uncovering of the mystery. Jonathan Andrew Hume made a wonderful British soldier and I loved his mime of driving a Land Rover, plus his character brought some humanity to a piece which has a lot of ego’s lurching around. Edward Baker-Duly was officiously pompous constantly trying to get Holly to leave and get on that plane!

Terrific too were the ensemble cast who in a who knows what era this is way shuffled around and reacted mobbishly to unexpected murders, as well as playing a zither, begging for alms and forcefully selling balloons. (How the British army stakeout got rid of those pesky balloons was quite amusing. You could feel the bristling indigent officialdom beaming off of them as the unwanted purchase was passed from soldierly hand to soldierly hand!) Best of all Derek Griffiths was The Porter!!!!