Hapgood, Birmingham Rep

Apr 18 2008 By Diane Parkes

TOM Stoppard's play takes us back to the age of the Cold War when the Eastern bloc swopped agents, double agents and triple agents with the West.

At the heart of this nest of intrigue sits Hapgood, the female spy master facing betrayal from among her own. Hapgood is a thoroughly likeable woman who is trying to balance her professional and private lives, played with warmth and humour by Black Country actress Josie Lawrence. But as the story unfolds there are worries she is losing the plot. In this she is not alone as, to be frank, I have to hold my hands up and admit the plot lost me. Stoppard's play makes the Rubik's Cube look simple.

Not only is it peppered with long discourses on quantum physics but the twists piling on top of turns left me totally befuddled.

Ultimately, directed by Rep artistic director Rachel Kavanaugh, this is a good production of a flawed play. All the performances are strong and the staging highly imaginative but by the end my brain was aching.

It runs until April 26.