WHEN director Simon Phillips staged the world premiere of his production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest to great acclaim in Australia in 2015, the crowds went wild. Now this thrillingly inventive stage show is holding its UK premiere at the Theatre Royal Bath from July 21 to August 12.

Award-winning director Simon Phillips finds time for a quick chat...

l What is it about North by Northwest that lends itself to a stage adaptation?

The most tempting thing about it was actually the impossible part of it – what doesn’t lend it to a stage adaptation at all, like the crop-duster sequence and the chase on Mount Rushmore. That’s the challenge, thinking ‘That’s an interesting thing to try and put on stage’, but so much of the film really has quite a theatrical feel to it anyway.

There are sit-down set pieces in interiors that feel to me really quite set and theatrical already. Also with Hitchcock’s style, the way he produces things, there’s kind of an edge to what he does and a sense of staging that feels like it’s primed to go on stage.

l How faithful to the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film and Ernest Lehman screenplay is the script?

I would say it’s very faithful to it, but she was particularly interested in the kind of sub-current of political intrigue that’s going on. I think what appealed most to her was the idea that The Professor and Vandamm are the same so the idea of the Cold War and the spy vs spy element is probably upped a little in the adaptation.

l Given how well-known and loved the film is, will audiences still be surprised by the twists and turns of the stage version?

You always have to work on it as if people haven’t seen it and even people who have seen it only remember certain key elements. You’re always surprised at the bits they don’t remember.

There are key visuals they remember, but often details of the plot haven’t stuck in people’s minds. So I tell the story assuming no-one has seen it and therefore the twists and turns of the plot are dealt with with the same sense of integrity and the same sense of thriller that inhabits the film.

Then I guess the other delight is audiences who do know it coming to see the play and discovering how the story is being told.

l Can you tell us about the use of film projection in the show?

I just worked on this idea that if the audience saw the elements of film being made in front of their very eyes then that added a layer of theatricality to the idea of using projections. Anything that the audience sees on the screen at the back of the stage they also see being made for the screen in front of them, which is why we have two live cameras.

l North By Northwest has its UK premiere at Theatre Royal Bath from Friday, July 21 to Saturday, August 12. Visit theatreroyal.org.uk or call 01225 448844.