‘The Secret Agent’, Joseph Conrad’s novel of secrets, lies and betrayal is neglected these days. Ironic, since much of what it says remains pertinent.
Written at a time when anarchism was the latest terrorism, or at least the threat Authority used to manage public panic, its narrative focuses on those who are history’s real victims.
Adapting work from another medium for the stage is never easy, but Theatre O and the Young Vic endeavour to make the best of what they have. Which is a very talented cast who use physicality to flesh out their version of Conrad’s tale.
It’s only fair to say that one thing this reviewer does not do well is physical theatre; it’s a sad fact of Fringe life that some productions do not get the reviewer they probably deserve, and this observation should be borne in mind when reading what follows.
The opening scene suggests what the audience is on for, but doesn’t really advance the story, which centres on Verloc, a compromised radical whose dysfunctional family is ultimately destroyed by his vanity and complicity. By using his wife’s mentally disabled brother to plant a bomb, Verloc precipitates the crisis that ends his own life and destroys that of his wife.
Theatre O and the Young Vic’s production utilises some of the technology available when ‘The Secret Agent’ was first published to create an atmosphere that is suspenseful and comic by turns. How far this actually works is an open question, since much of the novel itself is, as with much of Conrad’s fiction, concerned with posing moral questions and demonstrating how few of us are the equals of the situations we find ourselves in.
Although drama thrives on conflict, philosophical speculation is not easily dramatised, which is the problem this production sometimes wrestles with but cannot overcome. The cast, to be fair, work very hard and much of the action is believable, but this is a production which, although quite faithful in its fashion, feels more ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘adapted from’ its source.
Runs 6 - 25 August, various times