The Lodger review – ingenious penny dreadful take on Hitchcock’s foggy mystery

Old Red Lion theatre, LondonPuppetry and silent cinema techniques are used to retell Marie Belloc Lowndes’ novel and its film version in a show played for laughs rather than thrillsRep theatre is alive and well in this pub attic, where Flywheel are midway through a six-play season. In between last week’s Lysistrata and next week’s Pygmalion is The Lodger, in a version combining Marie Belloc Lowndes’ 1913 novel with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film and adding its own mysteries.Shadow puppetry is used throughout, evoking luridly illustrated penny dreadfuls and silent cinema, with homages to Hitchcock’s title cards. A killer known as the Avenger is at large: the victims are fair-haired women, their murders on Tuesdays. At one London boarding house – No 13, natch – a lodger (Charlie Woodward) comes under suspicion, a detective (Gabriel Lumsden) gets to work and golden-curled Daisy (Keziah Hayes) is caught between them under the gaze of a maid (Rachel Bardwell). Continue reading...

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