REVIEW: OUR MAN IN HAVANA @ THEATRE ROYAL WINDSOR

🎭 Our Man in Havana

📍 Theatre Royal Windsor, 32 Thames Street, Windsor, SL4 1PS

🗓 Wednesday 8th July 2026

⭐️ 2 Stars

SLUGGISH IN THE SUMMER HEAT

As the UK heatwave continues to beat upon us, I headed to the Theatre Royal Windsor to check out their latest production. I decided to head down early, and thankfully I did. The heat was causing disruption on the trains with my first being cancelled, and my second severely delayed. I eventually arrived, and enjoyed a walk along the river before heading to the theatre. Stepping into the auditorium, the sweltering heat outside suddenly felt incredibly apt - transporting us straight into the humid, sticky atmosphere of the Caribbean before the curtain even went up!

The play itself follows James Wormold, a struggling British vacuum cleaner salesman living in 1950s pre-revolutionary Cuba. When he is unexpectedly recruited by MI6 to become their secret agent in Havana, he realizes he has absolutely no intelligence to offer. Desperate to keep the cash flowing, he begins fabricating entirely fictional reports and recruiting fake sub-agents, even drawing up top-secret weapon blueprints that are actually just diagrammatic sketches of vacuum parts. Naturally, his fictional web of lies starts having lethal, real-world consequences.

But the problems with this show were rather evident from the start. Clive Francis's script is where the real issues lie. Everything felt incredibly drawn out. It seemed like twenty words were frequently used when five would have been more than enough. This made the play drag heavily for me. The pace was more like a lazy summer's walk rather than the high-octane, farcical romp that was promised. If I'm honest, I very quickly became annoyed and bored.

I also really disliked the way the script had been adapted from Graham Greene's novel. There were a lot of times when the actors broke the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience as narrators. But it was as if they were literally reading chunks from the original text, describing the physical surroundings in intricate detail. It begs the question: why can't we just be allowed to use our own imagination?

The piece is specifically written for four actors, with one playing the central character of Wormold, and the other three tasked with playing everyone else. It's no secret that when this dynamic is done well, I absolutely love it. You only have to look at exceptional West End shows like Operation Mincemeat or The Drifters Girl to see what masterclass multi-roling really looks like. Here, it just didn't work at all. Accents were, at times, getting visibly confused, and the characters were just far too similar to each other. Director Philip Wilson really should have made more effort to make these characters distinct. I would expect an actor's entire physicality to shift along with their jackets and accents, but there was sadly none of that on display here.

The only person who did this with any degree of success in my opinion was Jodie Steele. Though she was a standout, I still struggled to determine the creative decision behind making her 18-year-old character Milly so bizarrely juvenile. She seemed to be acting like an 8-year-old child rather than the young lady she was actually meant to be.

What makes this all the more frustrating is that the immense talent on that stage felt completely wasted. Having seen members of this cast shine in other productions over the years, I know exactly what they are capable of. In fact, back in my youth, I was even on the very same performing arts course as Leon Ockenden, so I have firsthand knowledge of just how brilliantly talented these actors are when given the right material. It is a massive shame that a company of this calibre has been so thoroughly let down by the text and direction here.

On the production side, Julie Godfrey's set design was actually quite good and remained functional throughout. However, the lighting design by Nick Richings deeply annoyed me. It was as if the focus was entirely on moodily setting the scene rather than properly illuminating the cast, leaving the actors' faces frequently trapped in shadow. This is an inexcusable error for me.

It's safe to say that this really wasn't my cup of tea. It was far too long, and with a poor script and baffling creative decisions, I left the theatre feeling frustrated and disappointed. Where was the urgency in the story? The entire evening was completely hampered by the pacing. I'm a big fan of a fast-paced farce, but it seems that if this production was a product on a supermarket shelf, I'd be suing under the Trade Descriptions Act!

An unfortunate, and rare, misfire for the Theatre Royal Windsor, but if you want to make your own mind up, then OUR MAN IN HAVANA continues performances until Saturday 11th July. CLICK HERE to check availability and book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair, and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

My ticket for this performance of Our Man in Havana was gifted by ANRPR, who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

CAST LIST:

Jack Ashton as Voice 1; Bob Barrett as Voice 2; Leon Ockenden as Voice 3; Jodie Steele as Voice 4

RUNNING TIME (approx):

2 hours 40 minutes, including interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Fictional espionage; Alcohol consumption; References to political tension in 1950s pre-revolutionary Cuba: Gun imagery

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