Behind the Iron Curtain for a tale of espionage and exile

The Olivier Award-winning comedy masterpiece Single Spies is the latest production of Robin Hood Theatre Company’s season.

Written by Alan Bennett, it is performed at the Robin Hood Theatre, Averham, from Tuesday to a week on Saturday (April 17-21).

It explores one of Britain’s most fascinating spy stories — that of Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt — their secret identities, hidden motivations and an unexpected interrogation by the Queen.

It is described as a compelling double bill of forgery, fraud and Soviet spies.

Burgess and Blunt were two members of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring, recruited by the Soviet Union during the second world war.

The production, directed by Claive Harmston, is a double-bill of An Englishman Abroad and A Question Of Attribution — two one-act plays.

Spanning the globe, from Moscow to London, they reveal lives lived under cover of fraud and exile and explore the public’s fascination with Russian spies.

In 1950s Moscow, actress Coral Browne receives an invitation to lunch with shunned Soviet spy, Guy Burgess, with the sole instruction to bring a tape measure.

An Englishman Abroad is a wry and touching play that chronicles the pair’s fleeting friendship and Burgess’s attempts to cling to his way of life as a Soviet citizen.

A Question of Attribution gives a glimpse into Anthony Blunt’s life of espionage within the walls of Buckingham Palace.

Following his double-life as surveyor of the Queens pictures and a Soviet spy, this witty tale of forgery and deceit culminates in a sharp and candid interrogation from Her Majesty The Queen herself.

The cast is made up of Jill Morris (Coral Browne) Mark Homer (Guy Burgess/Chubb) Geoff Morgan (Anthony Blunt/shop assistant) Liz Morgan (the Queen) Zemek Kaczmarek (Tolya/Colin) and Andrew Tallis (tailor/Phillips/restorer).

Single Spies was written by Alan Bennett, the celebrated English playwright, in 1988. His other productions include Talking Heads, The Lady In The Van, Habeas Corpus and The Madness Of George III.

Tickets for Single Spies cost £12 (£10 members).

They are available from the box bffice on 07733 179986 or via www.robinhoodtheatre.co.uk

The final production of the season for Robin Hood Theatre Company will be the Arnold Ridley thriller The Ghost Train.

It will be staged from June 19-23.