Silence of the Lambs

Bringing The Silence of the Lambs to the stage was always going to be a huge challenge. Jonathan Demme’s 1991 film is one of those rare pieces of cinema where the performances of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster have become so deeply embedded in popular culture that their characters are almost impossible to separate from the actors who played them.

So how does a stage production tackle it? In this case, with plenty of ambition, some impressive theatrical trickery and a willingness to take the story somewhere slightly different.

This new production, written by Gina Gionfriddo from Thomas Harris’s original novel and directed by Nikolai Foster, is a very well-produced piece of theatre. The set, lighting, sound and projections combine to create an impressively dark and cinematic world, and there are some genuinely effective special effects.

It is also not afraid to be disturbing.

Some of the depictions of Hannibal Lecter’s crimes and Buffalo Bill’s victims are particularly unsettling, and there are moments where the theatre becomes an uncomfortable place to be. Rather than simply relying on the audience’s familiarity with the film, the production uses the possibilities of live theatre to create its own shocks and atmosphere.

The stage design is one of the real strengths of the production. Scenes move rapidly between locations, while the clever use of levels, projections, lighting and moving scenery gives the show a scale that could easily have been lost in a straightforward stage adaptation. There is a distinctly cinematic quality to the production,

At the heart of the story is Clarice Starling, and Mollie Gallagher is excellent.

She brings real vulnerability and determination to the role, while also giving Clarice plenty of emotional depth. Her performance manages to make the character feel like much more than the FBI trainee simply trying to catch Buffalo Bill. The relationship between Clarice and Lecter is central to the story, and Gallagher gives the audience a character we can genuinely invest in.

For me, however, the biggest problem with the production is Hannibal Lecter.

John Partridge is clearly an experienced and accomplished performer, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with an actor wanting to put their own interpretation on such an iconic character. In fact, some critics have praised him specifically for avoiding an Anthony Hopkins impersonation and creating something different.

The problem is that, for me, he goes too far in the opposite direction.

This isn't really the Hannibal Lecter I went to see.

Partridge's Lecter is louder, more aggressive and considerably more theatrical than the character we know from Hopkins's Oscar-winning performance. There is nothing inherently wrong with that interpretation, but it felt so far removed from the elegant, chilling, quietly calculating Lecter that the character was almost unrecognisable.

Anthony Hopkins made Lecter terrifying precisely because he didn't need to shout. The menace was in the stillness, the eye contact, the tiny changes in expression and the sense that he was always completely in control. That version of Lecter could make a polite conversation about dinner feel more frightening than an outright threat.

Here, Lecter feels much more overtly sinister.

I can appreciate the argument that this is a stage adaptation of Thomas Harris's novel rather than a recreation of the film, and there is certainly merit in giving the character a new interpretation. But when a character is this iconic, audiences inevitably arrive with certain expectations. For me, the gap between what I expected to see and what was presented was simply too wide.

That said, this is still an impressive piece of theatre.

The production looks fantastic, the atmosphere is often superb and there are some genuinely disturbing moments that demonstrate just how effectively horror can work on a live stage. Gallagher is excellent, and the supporting cast help keep the story moving at a brisk pace.

A slick, atmospheric and often disturbing production, with some outstanding stagecraft and a terrific central performance from Mollie Gallagher — but for me, its new take on Hannibal Lecter is simply too far removed from the iconic character I was hoping to see.

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