BRIEF ENCOUNTER: adapted by Rice, Theatre Royal Nottingham till 9th May
Reviewed when it started its tour; Alan Geary's had a look to see how it's faring after some time on the road.
Nottingham/Touring.
BRIEF ENCOUNTER: adapted by Emma Rice.
Theatre Royal: Tkts 0115 989 5555 www.royalcentre-nottingham.co.uk.
Runs: 2h 15m: one interval: till 9th May.
Performance times: 7.30pm, matinees 2.00pm Weds and Thurs, and 2.30pm Sat.
Review: Alan Geary: 5th May 2009.
Send-up and homage all in one. A remarkable production.
If you were looking for something to quibble about you could argue that Kneehigh Theatre’s Brief Encounter can’t make up its mind. It sits uneasily between sending up the classic 1945 film and doing homage to it.
Actually director/adapter Emma Rice has made use of not just the film but Noel Coward’s original play on which it was based. And she’s come up with a remarkable production which has all the inventiveness, flair and entertainment value we now associate with Kneehigh. You laugh at Lean’s film, certainly, but at the same time you’re moved by its themes just as the original audience was.
A deft combination of stage work, back projection, puppetry even, is deployed to take you into characters’ minds as well as showing surface action. Right at the start Laura (Hannah Yelland, who did Kate Nickleby at this venue two years back) steps from where she’s been sitting with Alec (Milo Twomey) in the front row of a cinema (actually the Theatre Royal) into a black-and-white film.
Some things don’t quite work. It’s not entirely quite clear why Beryl, the station tearoom skivvy, rides a child’s scooter; and the innocent high spirits of the two squaddies in the film becomes inappropriately threatening here. Some things do work though: mercifully, Laura’s two detestable brats in pyjamas are played by puppets.
Two sub-plots parallel the main love story. So alongside the cut-glass accents of Alec and Laura we get a lot of that trilled R from Myrtle when she’s ordering Be-rrr-yl around in the tearoom. Beryl’s got something going with Stanley, a chirpy chappy with short long trousers.
The versatility of the cast is typical Kneehigh. Joseph Alessi, for instance, does Albert down the station, Laura’s buttoned up hubby, Alec’s camp colleague, and some excellent song-and-dance - there are splendid Coward numbers throughout.
At the end you get Rachmaninoff Two being played by Laura, a sign that the affair has made her bigger and better. And, clearly, Alec is going to do great things in Africa.
Laura: Hannah Yelland.
Alec: Milo Twomey.
Myrtle: Annette McLaughlin.
Albert/Fred: Joseph Alessi.
Beryl: Beverley Rudd.
Stanley: Christopher Price.
Ensemble: Violet Ryder, Jack Beale.
Musicians: Adam Pleeth, David Brown.
Director/Adapter: Emma Rice.
Set and Costume Designer: Neil Murray.
Lighting Designer: Malcolm Rippeth.
Projection Designers: Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington.
Original Music: Stu Barker.
Musical Director: Pete Judge.
Sound Designer: Simon Baker.
2009-05-08 15:03:22