SPIES

British playwright and novelist Michael Frayn shows his contemplative side in this sweet retrospective. When sixtyish Stephen Wheatley visits his childhood neighborhood, the Close, he observes, "Everything is as it was, and everything has changed. Stephen Wheatley has become this old man who seems to be me." He stands back in his mind to watch his younger self and his best friend in the early days of WWII. After a shocking revelation, the two boys begin spying on the adults in the Close, with surprising and poignant consequences. Martin Jarvis's performance is intelligent, precise, and brilliantly nuanced. He captures all of Frayn's sardonic humor, as well as his more serious moments of philosophizing, when boy and man learn that things seemingly simple are, in fact, "infinitely complex." S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB / MAR 03]