Our Man in Havana – Watermill Theatre, Bagnor

Picture: Pamela Raith

Our Man in Havana continues at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor until 21 May 2022.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Cabaret has swept the Oliviers, Bonnie and Clyde has crossed the Pond to open at the Arts with a ready-made fan base and Our Man in Havana is enjoying its premiere at the Watermill; three very different stories transformed into contemporary musicals but creatively worlds apart.

From the decadence of the Kit Kat Club to the blues, gospel and rockabilly vibe of 1930s gangster America and into the stifling spy-laden heat of Cuba, some stories work better than others in the musical makeover stakes. Each of these shows takes a biopic view of the ruling establishment within a specific time and place in world history and so have some similarity of themes.

Graham Greene’s iconic novel full of institutional mockery and counter-espionage is undoubtedly renowned as a classic of its time. Written originally with plans for a film script, in this theatre adaptation the music resonates with Cuban rhythms and the intoxicating heat of Havana against the financial and familial challenges of ex-Pats living in Cuba at this time of revolutionary change.

The cast injects a fixated passion into the Latino-inspired numbers that often make them look as though they are having to work too hard to lighten the mood, though this supercilious energy is a strong contrast to the deeper and more meaningful numbers where characters musically soliloquise about their situation.

Daniella Agredo Piper pinpoints the precocity of Milly Wormold, injecting youth and energy where needed, while Nigel Lister is the archetypal English gentleman abroad as protagonist James Wormold. As Wormold’s desperation to resolve his financial situation hits its peak, his plan to fabricate a spy story gets him deeper into dangerous territory when he meets double agent Beatrice (Paula James) whose feminine charms are used to subterfuge her target.

With a small cast, there is a requirement to double up various characters so Alvaro Flores is the authoritative policeman Segura and manipulative Hawthorne and Adam Keast is kindly Hasselbacher and the spy-ring Chief, although the differentiation is not always completely apparent in the initial scenes.

Antonio Sanchez is the on-stage musical director for the cast members who prove their actor-musicianship throughout, and with Kat Heath’s set design incorporating two pianos that convert into more props than one would think possible, we are transported to Havana. Moving from scene to scene takes some innovative choreography by Andrea Pelaez although at times less could be more.

As always, the Watermill’s team transforms the space beautifully and director Abigail Pickard Price uses it wisely.  However, it takes a while for the production to recognise and express itself as a black comedy and it feels as though it never truly accepts its musical status, fighting an internal identity crisis that probably needs slightly more work.

Julie Watterston