Review: Our Man in Havana brings a taste of Cuba to The Arts Theatre Cambridge

Actor Jack Ashton (Call the Midwife, Lockerbie) recently told the Cambridge Independent that in this new adaptation of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, in which he stars – and which is on now at The Arts Theatre Cambridge – “there’s four actors absolutely busting a gut to give you a night of entertainment”. And that is certainly the case.

For this high-energy production consists of Ashton as out-of-his-depth vacuum cleaner salesman/reluctant spy Jim Wormold and three other actors – Bob Barrett, Leon Ockenden and Jodie Steele – all of whom play a stunning variety of characters, from policemen, dancers, salesmen and strippers, to secret service agents, pimps, waiters and even Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

And right from the start, the piece moves along at great speed, with lightning-quick costume changes and new characters being introduced into the story all the time.

The actors also narrate what’s happening, which was an element I wasn’t too sure I liked at first. However, I soon got used to it and it certainly helped the audience to understand what was going on.

That said, I myself didn’t always fully understand what was happening and found some aspects of the story a little hard to follow – though I did appreciate the convincing on-stage recreation of Havana, the costumes, the music, the dancing, and of course the effort being made by these four very talented actors.

I felt there were more entertaining and laugh-out-loud moments in the second half, as well as some darkly comic scenes that recalled the 2018 UK touring stage production of Strangers on a Train, in which Ashton also appeared. There were also some very dramatic moments.

The play came to a satisfying conclusion and the actors’ bows were deservedly met with rapturous applause.

Our Man in Havana, adapted by Clive Francis from Graham Greene’s novel – and directed by Philip Wilson – is on now at The Arts Theatre Cambridge and runs until Saturday (5 September). Tickets, priced from £22, are available from artstheatre.co.uk.