I’ve been a fan of Dan Brown’s books since I first picked up The Da Vinci Code many moons ago. I’m fortunate enough to have a few well read friends who are also fans, so we’ve often sat and discussed the latest book we’ve revisited of his, maybe compared it to the films, and spoke in depth about the fun facts you can pick up. It’s all very interesting, especially the history of religion.
Last night I went to see The Da Vinci Code, and I was very intrigued to see how it was going to translate into a stage production. The film, I felt, was very true to the book which can be quite rare in cinematic productions, so I really hoped it was going to do so on stage, too. I wasn’t disappointed, obviously there were going to be limitations, but they worked through them where they had to.
If you’ve not read the book or seen the film (which I imagine you’d have done one of the two if you wanted to go see the play), it follows Robert Langdon (portrayed by Nigel Harman – him from Eastenders), a symbologist who gets tangled up in the murder of Jacques Saunier (Andrew Lewis), a curator at The Louvre, and must solve puzzles and riddles with the help of Sophie Neveu (Hannah Rose Caton), Saunier’s estranged Granddaughter. The clues lead us to various famous works of art including The Mona Lisa, on a journey from France, to England, Scotland, and finally back to where it all started at the Louvre in Paris.
The first half left me a little disappointed at the delivery, some of the acting felt a bit ‘Am-Dram’, but as my guest pointed out to me, the characters were generally caricatures in themselves anyway, and in the books and films, the info you’re given is done short and sharp to give you the feeling of feeling intelligent through learning, so I’m not going to criticise, because the second half really upped the game. There were some moments where it felt like it was verging on interpretive dance, which seemed a little strange, but on the whole it spiced things up a little bit and made it all the more captivating and visually impressive. I was most excited to see Danny John-Jules (because, y’know, Red Dwarf nostalgia) as Sir Leigh Teabing, the eccentric treasure hunter and history expert. Going back to what I said earlier, it felt like a very exaggerated character at first, but I guess that is what the character was in both the book and the film.
The set was simple but impressive, using visual graphics to portray scene locations, for example digitised clouds beamed on to the set walls for the aeroplane journey, dozens of different pre-recorded scenes for when Teabing is describing CCTV he had set up, and letters and numbers that would rearrange themselves as anagrams would be solved.
If I’ve come across as a bit to critical, I guess it’s because I had really high expectations, and truth be told my guest and I had a really fun time and both left the theatre speaking highly of it and I would really recommend going to see it.
I can’t finish the review without mentioning something that my plus one said that made us both chuckle. When one character looked at Robert Langdon and said “You look familiar”, in true pantomime style all he could think to shout out was “He was in Eastenders!!”
Review by Johnny Banks
The Da Vinci Code is showing until 22 Jan 2022 at the Theatre Royal, for more information and tickets click here
