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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Charlotte Crowe as Beryl and Ros Davies as Myrtle. Pictures: Roy Palmer Brief Encounter
Hall Green Little Theatre
**** HATS off to
director Edward James Stokes for making some sense of Noel Coward’s
Brief Encounter. Some plays you look forward to seeing, others
less so, and this adaptation by Emma Rice, falls into the latter
category. It often comes out as a confused muddle, never
quite sure whether to be a musical or a romantic drama or even a comedy
and never really convincing whichever path it happens to be lost along
at the time. Stokes has taken the piece by the scruff of the
neck and given us all three as separate vignettes with a touch of music
hall with some of the songs – and shell footlights – a musical with the
more poignant songs, a comedy set around the slap and tickle shenanigans
in the tea rooms of the railway station, and perhaps, ironically, least
effective 75 years on, the adulterous romance which was the cornerstone
of t The film was set in
1938 and was based upon Coward’s 1936 one act play
Still Life,
and, although the Second World War had changed perceptions of many
things, a married woman carrying on
with a married man, a double betrayal, was still a no no . . . which
gave the film, and play, a fascination all of its own. We have always
taken a gleeful delight in forbidden fruits. These days, the fruits are on supermarket shelves
though, affairs are commonplace and bread and butter daily fodder to
celebrity pages, so any hint of scandal in the doomed romance of
housewife Lauren Jesson and doctor Alec Harvey in Coward’s play no
longer raises an eyebrow – not even a twitch.
Not that Lauren Breslin and Al McCaughey as the
ill-fated lovers don’t give it all they have got. Breslin gives us a
fanciable, middle class housewife living in a secure, comfortable, happy
but dull marriage and we can feel her pain and heartache as she agonises
about her ever increasing drift into infidelity. McCaughey produces a more idealistic partner in
the doctor. We find out little of his wife and children and, to be
honest, he is a bit wet, hardly a dashing, sweep-you-off-your-feet
Romeo, although he is the one who attempts to take their fledgling
relationship to a more carnal level, borrowing a friend’s flat for an
evening when one could assume he was not intending to play Scrabble. It is a decision which turns into disaster when
the friend returns home early before Cupid has even had time to get his
bow out, the only that has happened is it has made Lauren question the
whole affair as she runs down the back stairs as a lady of the night. The language, and indeed romance, has a
distinctly period feel, as it should of course, but it can seem a little
dated these days, so Stokes has lifted the whole production by giving a
more prominent role to the supposedly supporting characters who populate
the railway station led by Myrtle Bagot, upstanding manageress of the
tea rooms. Ros Davies makes her a larger than life character
full of fun, one moment strict and unmoving, refusing to serve drinks
out of hours to two soldiers, then, moments later, serving herself
brandy to get over the kerfuffle. She has her own romance going on with ticket
inspector Albert, who spends much of his day flirting and cadging tea
from Myrtle – and Albert is happy as Larry as he is on a promise for a
night at the pictures – if he behaves himself. Some chance! Stokes himself plays fun loving Albert, as well
as Lauren’s dull husband Fred and the rather shocked friend Stephen
whose flat Alec borrows. To his credit only the programme gives away it
is the same actor. Another budding romance is between the station
cake and refreshment seller Stanley, with his tray, and Beryl, the naïve
young girl who works for Mrs Bagot in the tea rooms. Matt Ludlam has the cheeky chappie air of the
flirting Stanley just right while Charlotte Crowe’s Beryl brings a quiet
innocence to the role. There is also a lovely cameo appearance by Linda
Neale as Dolly, a rather up-market friend, who spots Lauren and Alec as
the affair is ending and quickly spots what has been going on and she
also appears with Ros Davies as a pair of nosy friends, Mary and
Hermione, who come across our adulterous lovers. It could have been an embarrassing moment for
Lauren but a rather dull one for the audience but it is turned into a
comedy gem by giving the pair a nice set of eccentricities and adding
The three couples provide clear contrasts with
Albert and Myrtle and their more mature years not exactly newcomers to
the courting game but free of any ties to play again, while Stanley and
Beryl are in loves’ first bloom. And between them we have Lauren and
Alec, intense, full of angst, and doomed from the start. There are also some lovely touches of humour
scattered through the production such as Crowe, again, as a waitress
with a synchronised serving and clearing when Lauren and Alec meet in a
restaurant, or the pop of a champagne cork long enough after the waiter
had removed it to garner a laugh as our lovers meet in a hotel, or the
piano continuing to play after Stanley, as the pianist stands up to sing
with Beryl.
The confidence of the
singing, incidentally, grew as the play went on with Coward songs such
as Mad About the Boy, Go Slow Johnny
and I’ll See You Again
– the latter reprised in a recording by Coward himself towards he end. The set, designed by Stokes, looks unpromising at
curtain up, nothing like the Carnforth railway station tea rooms of the
film, but once we are underway it works well. The rough steps at either side connected at the
back are the old fashioned footbridge between the up and down lines at
every station while between them is the tea room, with a piano as the
counter. It had a period feel as did the excellent costumes, most
particularly, so I was told, by the 1930’s style slip! On the technical side Roger Codd and Dean Taylor
did an excellent job on sound with cues for endless bells, whistles,
trains . . . champagne corks . . . and Tom Brookes’ recorded music to
contend with while Roy Palmer, Simon Nall and Paul Holtom had passing
trains, dramatic spots and changing scenes to play with on lights, along
with steam from passing trains to boot. All in all a very good production which shows why
the Kneehigh production was such as success in the West End and on
Broadway. To 12-06-16 Roger Clarke 04-06-16 |
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