Cyanide at 5. King’s Head Theatre.

Peter Kavanagh’s production of Czech writer Pavel Kohout’s 1997 thriller Cyanide at 5, the first in the UK, is a treat.

Zofia (Lise-Ann McLaughlin) is a wealthy, aging Polish-born writer living in the most fashionable district of Prague. She only has one novel to her name; a fictional diary of a holocaust victim called The Walls Between Us. So popular is the novel and its fictional protagonist Klara, that it has become a classic best-seller and the most important literary exploration of 1943’s Jewish Warsaw ghetto uprising.

But Zofia’s comfortable, sedate, if lonely life is about to change dramatically. An unexpected stranger named Irina (Philippa Heimann), putatively a fan of the novel, turns up at her apartment one afternoon with some urgent questions about the novel’s characters. Initially, flattered by the attention and in need of company, the novelist invites her to stay for tea and a snifter of cherry brandy. As is the way in psychological thrillers, this turns out to be a big mistake. Just who is this mysterious stranger and what does she really want?

As a reminder of the horrors of the Polish ghetto the story works well enough. Beneath the surface however, Cyanide at 5 is a sparkling exploration of the power of deep abiding love, and of bitter unforgiving hatred, and what these contrasting emotions will drive people to do. Frumpily dressed Zofia is driven by unrequited passion and the desire to pay homage to her only real love, still dearly missed after 30 years. Bespectacled Irina is motivated by a burning sense of injustice, and a desire to set right a monstrous past wrong. It is not altogether clear why she has waited 30 years to get what she wants, but that is a minor quibble. Neither character turns out to be particularly likeable, but both in their way are justified in the actions they take.

Heimann’s performance as the twisted and hate filled Irina, her scowling, contorted face deliciously conjuring up suppressed inner rage, is gloriously OTT and a delight to watch. Dressed all in black, she paces around the room like an expectant father, waiting for her world to finally give birth to justice. Initially imperious, upright, and condescending a limping McLaughlin visibly diminishes in stature as the truth about Zofia’s novel is slowly revealed, each step accompanied by the toll of a living room clock. There is tremendous rapport between the actors, almost two sides of the same coin.

Recommended.

Writer:  Pavel Kohout

Director: Peter Kavanagh

15 November 2022

Duration: 75 mins no interval.