Tall tales, fiddled expenses, a British vacuum-cleaner salesman and Cold War spies: Our Man in Havana has all the ingredients for theatrical chaos, and this fast-moving Oxford Playhouse production makes the most of them.
At a glance
| Show | Our Man in Havana |
| Where reviewed | Oxford Playhouse |
| Oxford run | Until Saturday 1 August 2026 |
| Based on | Graham Greene’s novel |
| Adapted by | Clive Francis |
| Director | Philip Wilson |
| Cast | Jack Ashton, Bob Barrett, Leon Ockenden and Jodie Steele |
| Age guidance | 14+ |
| Tickets | Available through Oxford Playhouse |
What could possibly go wrong when a mild-mannered vacuum-cleaner salesman is recruited by British intelligence in 1950s Cuba?
Quite a lot, as it turns out. For the characters in Our Man in Havana, the result is a spiralling web of invented agents, bogus reports, suspicious officials and increasingly dangerous consequences. For the audience, it is a hugely entertaining night of quick-change comedy, sharp satire and finely controlled farce.
Produced by Theatre Royal Windsor, Clive Francis’ adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel is clever, brisk and consistently funny. It knows exactly how absurd its premise is, but it also understands the darker Cold War world sitting just beneath the jokes.
A salesman trapped in his own fiction
The story follows James Wormold, a British vacuum-cleaner salesman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his daughter, Milly.
When Wormold is unexpectedly recruited by MI6, he realises there may be money to be made from espionage, even if he has no real intelligence to provide. So he begins inventing agents, filing fictional reports and turning parts of vacuum cleaners into supposed military diagrams.
What begins as a ridiculous scheme to improve his finances soon becomes alarmingly real. London believes him. Havana starts watching him. And Wormold finds himself trapped inside the very lies he has created.
It is a perfect comic engine: one small deception creates another, then another, until everyone is running after a truth that was never there in the first place.
Four actors, more than 30 characters
One of the production’s greatest strengths is the versatility of its cast.
Jack Ashton leads the evening with a warm and thoroughly engaging performance as Wormold. He gives the character charm, awkwardness and just enough moral wobble to make the whole situation believable. Wormold is not a natural spy, but Ashton makes it entirely credible that he might accidentally become quite good at pretending to be one.
Bob Barrett, Leon Ockenden and Jodie Steele surround him with a dizzying carousel of characters. Between them, the four actors play more than 30 roles, with accents, costumes, hats, postures and comic rhythms changing at impressive speed.
Some transformations happen in full view, others arrive after rapid costume changes, but the company keeps the pace under control. The cast barely put a foot wrong, although Jodie Steele briefly succumbing to a fit of the giggles only made the audience enjoy the moment more.
Fast, funny and sharply theatrical
The production is at its best when it embraces its own theatricality.
Rather than trying to recreate Havana naturalistically, it uses quick changes, stylised movement and sharp comic timing to keep the story moving. The result is a world that feels deliberately heightened, where danger and absurdity are never far apart.
Among the evening’s funniest moments is the dinner party poisoning scene, which is played with terrific timing and escalating panic.
Bob Barrett’s unexpected appearance as a scantily clad dancer also brought some of the biggest laughs of the night, while the cast’s constant switching of roles gave the whole production the feel of a spy caper being assembled in front of us.
There is also plenty of pleasure in Wormold’s family life, particularly through Milly, who appears to be leading a double life of her own: adored by the nuns at her convent school, while secretly pursuing a romance with local police chief Captain Segura, to her father’s horror.
Comedy with a darker edge
Although Our Man in Havana is very funny, it is not weightless.
The plot occasionally pushes into darker territory, with political intrigue, surveillance and violence entering the frame. Greene’s satire works because the machinery of intelligence is shown to be both ridiculous and dangerous.
The production keeps that balance well. It never allows the darker moments to flatten the comedy, but it does remind us that Wormold’s lies are not harmless once powerful people start acting on them.
That tension gives the play more bite than a straightforward farce. The audience can laugh at the absurdity while still recognising the danger of systems that reward fantasy when it is dressed up as intelligence.
Verdict
Our Man in Havana is a witty, inventive and very entertaining night at the theatre.
Jack Ashton makes Wormold an appealingly unlikely spy, while Bob Barrett, Leon Ockenden and Jodie Steele bring energy, precision and comic variety to a huge supporting cast of characters.
Fast-paced, smartly staged and full of laugh-out-loud moments, this is a production that gives Graham Greene’s spy comedy a fresh theatrical life.
It is at Oxford Playhouse until Saturday 1 August. Tickets are available through Oxford Playhouse or by calling the Box Office on 01865 305305.
