“I was surprised how fast, funny and fresh this show was. A twisty, Raymond Chandler style adventure with the world’s dimmest detective (and his smarter younger brother) told in one hour. It may even be better than the book.” – author Anthony Horowitz after seeing the show on tour last year.
The novel, whose author has gone on to write the Alex Rider Stormbreaker series as well as most recently the latest two Sherlock Holmes novels and the new James Bond story, is a brilliant pastiche of the film-noir genre. It has at its heart the world’s worst detective, Tim Diamond, who luckily has an incredibly bright younger brother Nick who helps him navigate a thrilling case that is all kicked when a three foot Mexican hires them to look after a box of Maltesers.
The tale that follows features gangsters, hit-men, double-crosses, arrests, murders and even a car chase. All this and the book’s hysterical comedy is brought to life in the stage version that New Old Friends adapted from the book with input from the author. The piece is directed by renowned family-show director Lee Lyford who coaxes miraculous feats of theatrical invention with his cast of four playing twenty characters and the car-chase sequence in particular is a classic piece of fringe magic.
New Old Friends are a touring company who previously had toured shows aimed at an older target audience created the show with their four partners (Theatre Royal Bath, Newbury Corn Exchange, Natural Theatre Company and Walker Books the publisher) because they recognised a dearth of quality theatre for the 8+ audience.
“We are lucky to have great links with Theatre Royal Bath’s Egg, which hosts some of the world’s best children’s theatre, but we noticed that there was plenty of work for early years and again once young people become teenagers but not much in between.” – Heather Westwell, Co-Artistic Director
So the company set about gaining the rights for a book they had come across and adored in adulthood but which technically lives in the ‘children’s literature’ section of the library. It was the comedy of the novel that really convinced them that The Falcon’s Malteser would make a great stage show.
“I was hired to deliver a summer school project loosely based on the book, and when I read it for research I couldn’t stop laughing. The story is brilliant and absorbing, trying to solve the case before Nick is great fun but it’s the jokes and Tim’s stupidity that really appealed to me.” – Feargus Dunlop, Co-Artistic Director
With the rights secured the husband and wife team pulled together a first draft of the adaptation which was met with enthusiasm from the author himself, telling them they were on the right track and to not be afraid to cut sections and even whole characters. The result is a very fast-paced show with actors flying off stage and returning a minute later in yet another costume with yet another accent.
It toured the UK last year to sell-out houses and great reviews and now it arrives at the Fringe trimmed down to a tight 60 minutes but retaining all the magic, madness and mirth. You can see The Falcon’s Malteser by Anthony Horowitz at The Pleasance Forth at 2pm daily and even get a limited edition copy of the book as a programme.
Aug 5-16, 18-23, 25-31 at 14:00
