Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge – until 24 July 2021.
Reviewed by Steph Lott
3***
What would 2 spies who hadn’t seen each other for over 30 years talk about, especially when they had found themselves on opposite sides of the Cold War? This was what I was wondering before the start of A Splinter of Ice.
Ben Brown’s play, set in the living room of Philby’s 1980’s Soviet flat in Moscow, explores what might have happened on the evening of February 15, 1987, when Greene (Oliver Ford Davies) visited Philby (Stephen Boxer), with Philby’s wife, Rufa (Karen Ascoe), in attendance.
Before watching the play, I was unfamiliar with Greene’s past as an MI6 agent and I wasn’t aware that that Greene even knew Philby. The play focuses on the relationship between Greene and former spy Kim Philby, one of the infamous Cambridge Five, who fed military intelligence to the Russians whilst working for MI6. I also didn’t know that Greene worked under Philby during the Second World War and was one of the only ones who defended him after Philby was exposed as a double agent in 1963.
The play is a conversation between Greene and Philby. After such a long time apart and with so much that has happened, initially their conversation is mostly amusing, with snippets of trivia, such as whether Greene based Harry Lime, the villain of The Third Man, (played by Orson Welles)—on his former MI6 boss, and vague warnings about what questions Greene cannot ask Philby.
At the beginning I wondered if this would really have been what Greene would have talked about with his former friend and boss after so many years. There was a lack of drama. It seemed like we were never going to explore the darker, more complicated motives that Philby must have had to betray his country and I began to ask myself what the play was even about, really.
However, as I watched I reflected on the title of the play and its origins. Greene said that if novelists have a splinter of ice in their hearts, then spies have a whole icicle. They are an enigma, expert at dissimulation. So, when Greene went to visit Philby, with a possible offer from the British government to return home to Britain, having apparently been forgiven, how would Greene have started the discussion?
By the end of the play whatever doubts I might have had about the dramatic impact were swept away by the performances of Oliver Ford Davies as Graham Greene, Stephen Boxer as Kim Philby and Karen Ascoe as Philby’s fourth and last wife, Rufa, a Russian. They take us gently through the spy’s fascinating life, and the conversation between Greene and Philby, in natural, amusing and understated performances.
The impression I was left with was one of sadness. Philby died a year after the meeting with Greene. The USSR was broken up about 2 years after that. It is thought that in defecting Philby led a diminished life. He still believed in the Communist system but thought it was poorly led. He was not able to bring his family with him and it was some years before the Russians gave him anything to do. However Philby categorically believes that what he did was worth whatever penalty he paid.
Watching A Splinter of Ice was like looking through a window into a past world. I would recommend you go and take a look. The play takes some time to get to the point, but when it does it’s worth it.