The idea of taking classic black and white movies and turning them into fresh, engaging stage shows is a proven model. The gloriously romantic 1945 film Brief Encounter became a smash hit show for Emma Rice of Knee-High Theatre Company in 2008 and 1955 Ealing comedy The Ladykillers became a fabulous stage show in 2011. So, it was with great interest that we visited a preview performance to see how the 1939 Bob Hope gothic horror comedy, The Cat and the Canary would be translated to the intimate space of the Minerva Studio.

Based on the 1922 book by John Willard, the plot is based on the tale of a canary in a cage with a cat let loose, causing the canary to die of fright. The canary in question is heiress Annabelle West (well played by Lucy McCormick) who has to remain alive and sane to inherit while all sorts of peculiar goings on happen around her. We watch to identify the cat from the other would-be beneficiaries of the twenty-year-old will and assorted other mysterious characters. The premise is good and the eerie black and white set covered in dust sheets sets the tone as we take our seats.

Adapter Carol Grose and Director Paul Hunter have chosen to borrow as many horror tropes they could think of to shoehorn into the production and create the feel of Gaslight (the 1938 thriller in which a wife is driven insane by her husband) meets The Play That Goes Wrong with its ludicrous escalating frantic chaos. Horror and comedy require a discipline in their execution; timing is everything to create jump frights or moments of delightful comic relief, and this play tries too hard to cram so much in and does not quite deliver on either front. It may get tighter and sharper after a few more performances but the staging and script are not smart enough to work as it should.

You almost feel that you need a horror bingo card to tick off each borrowed element! It starts with the master of horror, Hitchcock, with music of his films and the birds watching from the scenery and projected backcloth. When the lights go up on the old abandoned house interior, there are masks that hint at Sleuth and Friday the Thirteenth, a head revolved 360 degrees from Carrie, projectile vomiting from The Exorcist, spilled guts from films such as Day of the Dead, a mad person on the run from films like Lunatic (1991), a mute servant like in the1932 film The Old Dark House, and those regular horror elements including characters appearing in gas masks, the elderly loyal retainer, red eyes in the darkness, sudden appearances and prop drops. It becomes frantic, and characters overreact and shout. Nick Haverson leads the madness as multiple characters, distinguished mainly by how he wears a ginger beard. On his head, he is Crosby, the solicitor; on his chin, he is Hendricks, the escapee; and over his sporran, he is Patterson, the Scottish Doctor. It is an amusing performance from his first entrance down a fireman’s pole to his final appearance as PC McDougall, each played wholeheartedly for laughs.

The other persistent element is that the cast are knowingly aware that they are in a theatre performing with their glances to into the audience and theatrical jokes like a character referencing being used to being in “big empty houses “ as he had played the Theatre Royal Windsor, references to a full house (counting the empty seats in the theatre) and talk of starring on Broadway, Ealing Broadway. The thunder sheet is visible and cast members are seen walking across the back wall before their entrances. There are jokes too about Agatha Christie and Cluedo.

The bonkers madcap execution aims to create an over-the-top comedy rather than a scary horror play, but both comedy and horror should be played straight as a serious business, not with a self-indulgent knowing cleverness. This fails to strike the balance between moments of jump frights and delightful big laughs. Too many references to past horror shows are included. It is energetic, amusing and with some clever elements but overall, it is not as satisfying as the reinvention of The Lady Killers for the stage or the creative inventiveness of Brief Encounter. Sometimes that old adage, less is more, should be followed and then the adaptation from film to stage might have been more effective.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne

This review was based on watching the 2 October preview performance before the show opened on 4 October 2024.

The Cat and the Canary plays at Chichester Festival Theatre until 26 October, with further info here.