The Comedy About Spies is a very British kind of night at the theatre: silly, broad and knowingly ridiculous, asking little of you beyond switching off and having a laugh. From Mischief, the company behind The Play That Goes Wrong, this 1960s spy spoof places the CIA, the KGB and an unsuspecting British couple in the same ‘luxury’ Piccadilly hotel, with predictably chaotic results.
The humour feels like a PG version of Carry On, with a little panto thrown in for good measure. There are questionable accents, misunderstandings and mistaken identities that are deliberately daft rather than particularly clever. It is not trying to be sharp, satirical, or sophisticated; it is harmless fun, built around familiar spy-film clichés, wordplay and physical comedy.
The first act moves at a great pace. One chase sequence in particular feels reminiscent of a Scooby-Doo episode: characters darting across the stage and narrowly missing each other in a piece of playful movement. There is something comforting about watching a production commit so fully to that sort of live theatrical silliness. Shelley Maxwell’s movement direction gives the chaos real precision; even at its most ridiculous, the action feels carefully controlled.
The set is perhaps the production’s greatest strength. Split across four hotel rooms, it allows the story to unfold in several places at once, with lighting steering the audience’s focus from one room to another. Rather than opting for a stripped-back or abstract design, the show embraces the era. Period details, including phone booths, help create a world that feels both lavish and suitably old-fashioned. For younger audience members, those phones may well be as much a curiosity as the espionage plot itself. The set becomes a comic mechanism in its own right, enabling unexpected entrances, exits and near-misses with the same brilliantly rehearsed chaos as the rest of the production.
There is clear chemistry across the cast, and Douglas Woodbead stands out through the character’s affected delivery, voice and exaggerated performance style. His comedic timing feels precise, every inflection and accent has been designed to land at exactly the right moment. At the centre of the madness are Bernard Wright and Rosemary Wilson, a couple evidently on the brink of a new chapter. Although they have entirely opposing ideas of what that chapter should be, it gives the show an emotional thread beneath the spy business.
The second act is where the pace begins to drift. The laughter dwindled at points, and some of the gags became so repetitive the impact was lost. The comic machinery is still impressive, but it occasionally feels as though the show is pressing the same button too many times. What begins as energetic and unpredictable gradually becomes more familiar, making the second half feel longer than it needs to.
Despite this, the ending manages to pull the separate threads together. After all the confusion, crossed wires and comic detours, there is a satisfying sense that the show knows exactly where it is heading. The chaos has a clear payoff, bringing the spy plot and the characters’ personal dilemmas to a suitably silly but well-earned conclusion.
Personally, it is not my kind of theatre, but it is hard to deny the craft involved. For families, fans of panto-style comedy, or anyone looking for an uncomplicated evening of British farce, The Comedy About Spies offers plenty of laughs and a great way to spend a summer holiday.
NEED TO KNOW: The Comedy of Spies is playing until 26 Sep 2026 at the Adelphi Theatre | Find out more.
Related links
The Play That Goes Wrong – review – 2026
The Play That Goes Wrong – review – 2022
