Presented by Blue Sky Theatre
Reviewed 4th August 2021
At the height of the Cold War, during the 50s and 60s, espionage was becoming a sophisticated profession. Spies were thought to be (and often were) everywhere. Some of these stories have become legendary: The Rosenbergs; The Cambridge Five; The Petrov Affair. Less well known is The Portland Spy Ring, which found high-ranking KGB operatives living in suburban London.
Writer Hugh Whitemore made a career out of theatre and television plays based on real-life characters, often around cold-war stories. In 1983 he adapted his television play about the Portland case, Act of Betrayal, into the hugely successful stage version Pack of Lies.
Blue Sky Theatre has very kindly moved indoors for this production. As well as keeping us safe from the wintery weather, Stirling Community Theatre provides a perfect dark, enclosed, space to echo the themes of the play.
Middle-class Ruislip couple Bob and Barbara Jackson have been friends for five years with their Canadian neighbours Peter and Helen Kroger. Their teenage daughter Julie adores her “Aunty Helen”. One day the mysterious Mr Stewart arrives at the Jackson’s home and persuades them to allow operatives into their house so they can set up surveillance on the Krogers across the road.
Whitemore’s script is a chilling portrait of the suburban ordinariness of much cold-war espionage. But rather than a spy-procedural it is an exploration of the damage done, not to a nation, but to the everyday people around under-cover operatives, and to some extent, the operatives themselves.
Director Dave Simms has deftly coaxed the best out of his cast. Brant Eustice and Tracey Walker give understated and moving performances as the Jacksons. Gary George gives depth to Peter Kroger, and Petra Schulenberg commands the stage as Helen Kroger, giving us a conflicted and complex woman right from the start. Joshua Coldwell’s Mr Stewart strikes the right, anonymous tone, but Coldwell needs to learn how to project without shouting the whole time. Kate van der Horst is charming as Julie, but struggling to really find the character. Overall, this is a terrific ensemble piece, and the cast clearly revels in it.
Pack of Lies is an extremely satisfying night in the theatre: part kitchen-sink drama, part espionage, part dark comedy, it is one of those productions that will keep you pondering long after the curtain has fallen.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Twitter: @TraceyKorsten
Venue: Stirling Community Theatre
Season: 5th-7th August
Duration: 2.5 hours including interval
Tickets: $35
Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?embed&eid=737003
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