Every former university theatre student has at least one story of scrappy genius. A moment will immediately come to mind: the night someone built a thunderstorm out of a cookie sheet and a desk lamp. Ingenuity is the mother of a memorable creative choice. 

I’ve watched oodles of theatre at every price point, and I find something dies when the budget climbs. When money buys the first idea, nobody dreams up the wacky alternative. This inventive magic — the joy and wit and weirdness of a great solve — can be value-engineered out of the highest tiers of American theatre. In the case of North by Northwest, the stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller currently playing at The Old Globe, I walked in half-expecting a full-scale aircraft to descend, à la Miss Saigon’s helicopter.

That is not what happened.

Somehow, theatre makers at the Emma Rice Company keep a college kid’s cookie-sheet soul while spending like a graduate. Their feisty ingenuity alongside grand scale makes this a smart, sassy, and unexpected adaptation, acing the art form.

This summer run marks the North American stage premiere of North by Northwest — adapted and directed by Rice, after success in the United Kingdom — taking Hitchcock’s 1959 Cold War caper into the hands of seven multi-talented performers, a lively soundtrack, and a props list of epic proportions. For those who love the movie: Roger Thornhill still gets mistaken for a spy, survives a crop-duster attack, and dangles off the side of Mount Rushmore. However, each iconic movie image arrives through invention rather than replication — bodies becoming scenery, suitcases truly transporting, and an ensemble that winks at the audience mid-chase without ever dropping the stakes. The meta asides are the good kind: not apologetic or smug, but mutual enjoyment. The company rejoices in the limitations of the stage, trading cinematography for choreography. And beneath the pulp-fiction story, Rice locates the loneliness of a man seeking to discover who he is in the process of clearing his name. It is a work of genius.

Special attention to the exceptional and decorated Rob Howell, who designed both the set and costumes. His revolving-door design is a mesmerizing and effective kaleidoscope. In a video interview with York Theatre Royal, he stated, “It would be weird to just bring an airplane on stage, which we can do, but that would be top-heavy and not part of the tone of the other storytelling. So we have to find a way, tonally, of getting the right airplane on stage, not the wrong one. I’m not going to tell you how; you have to buy a ticket.”

The Emma Rice Company is remarkable and internationally renowned, and San Diego is lucky to host its work. Artistic Director Rice spent two decades with Cornwall’s Kneehigh, ran Shakespeare’s Globe in London, and in 2018 founded her own company, Wise Children — named for the Angela Carter novel she staged as its debut at the Old Vic — and rebranded as Emma Rice Company in 2025. Her productions are fascinating and popular, making her company (based in a converted Methodist church in Frome) a pilgrimage destination for theatre aficionados. When I was in England last October, this was the company I regretted missing. Thankfully, nine months later, the mountain came to Balboa Park. Special appreciation to The Old Globe for bringing us artists we would otherwise need a passport to see.

I can’t call it my favorite show of the summer yet (there is too much left to open), but I guarantee it’ll be on my list of the most memorable of the year.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

July 3 – August 2, 2026
Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
North American premiere
Adapted and directed by Emma Rice
Based on the Turner Entertainment Co. film North by Northwest
An Emma Rice Company, Kay & McLean Productions, and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions co-production
Produced by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures and Kay & McLean Productions