Another Country

Spies like Us?

Written by Julian Mitchell, Another Country was one of the most acclaimed British plays of the 1980s. It's original London production boasted a cast of young rising stars, including Rupert Everett and Kenneth Branagh. It won Play of the Year at 1982 Olivier Awards, while Branagh was awarded Most Promising Newcomer. Since then it's enjoyed many successful revivals and was adapted for the silver screen in 1984, this film version helping to launch the career of yet another young up-and-comer, Colin Firth. With many of today's political class having graduated from Eton and the like, now seems like the perfect time to revisit this drama of toffs and spies.

This new revival transfers from Chichester's Minerva Theatre and is helmed by Jeremy Herrin, who last year oversaw the RSC's productions of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bringing up the Bodies. Among the young cast tasked with the unenviable task of measuring up to Everrett and co. are Will Attenborough (BBC's Hollow Crown) and newcomer Rob Callender.

The Story

The spy ring known as The Cambridge Five was one of the more extraordinary stories to emerge from Cold War Britain. The ring was comprised of four Cambridge University students (and another mystery fifth member who has never been identified) who were recruited by the Soviets and passed secrets to the Russians during WWII and into the 1950s.

Another country is based on the life of one of the four, Guy Burgess. It explores his public school career, a period which set him on a course of treachery. Openly gay, Burgess is immediately at odds with his school's old fashioned, rigidly traditional values. He befriends a kindred spirit, Tommy Judd, who is also viewed with suspicion by the school's hierarchy, not for sexuality but for his commitment to Marxism. Events come to a head when a brutal prefect is tasked with banishing any perceived perversions from the school's corridors...