Review of Loft Theatre Company production of Hitchcock Blonde (2014)

He was unique in the annals of cinema – the fat, jowly, breathy fellow who was a mastermind of movie suspense, screen sensuality and shock à la Psycho.

His legend spread into the realms of fixation with his leading ladies and this is the key that writer Terry Johnson tapped to usher in a curious and complex play. The Loft’s production, in the hands of director Darren Scott, starts on a brilliant cinematic note which, if it could have been sustained, would have provided an extraordinarily diverting evening’s entertainment.

As it is, there is a highly pretentious feel about the whole thing and the problem lies somewhere between the author’s excesses and a production that fails to capitalise on the better points.

Attempting a wide sweep of creativity, the play parallels three scenarios of older men undergoing their own obsessive urges at the expense of emotionally damaged young women. Blondes, of course, highlighted by the Hitchcock brand – Kelly, Novak, Leigh and Hedren.

It’s a promising enough theme, but the dialogue – ironically – is far too talky. The central linking subject of an ageing academic luring his young female student off to a Greek island villa for the combined purposes of seduction and piecing together the findings of a long-lost Hitchcock film lapses into tedium. Uneven performances do not overcome the bloated writing: Paul Atkins is far too low-key in delivery and Sarah Kyffin, after initially finding a perky, quirky, flip sort of girl, tends to over-indulge and mismanages a truly awful drunk scene.

When it comes to Hitchcock’s intercut sessions with a body-double blonde, there is a hint of more momentum. Danny Mackie and Karen Brooks find elements of truth in their sinister confrontation roles, but again it’s all too static and wordy.

We are left with the feeling that the cutting-room floor should have been more employed to develop the overall thrust of the piece. The ideas are intriguing enough, but the general effect is otherwise.

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Peter McGarry is an experienced, independent professional theatre critic who has agreed to review Loft Theatre Company productions.

The agreement with the Loft is that Peter is free to express his opinions for good or ill. The Loft Theatre Company has no control whatsoever over the content of these reviews and will never comment publicly on what he writes.