REBECCA. To 31 October.
Keswick.
REBECCA
by Daphne du Maurier adapted by Frank McGuinness.
Theatre By The Lake In rep to 31 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 8,13,19,29 Sept, 9,10,20,31 Oct 2pm.
BSL Signed 29 Sept 8pm.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 017687 74411.
www.theatrebythelake.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 August.
A chequered road to Manderley.
Frank McGuinness may be a respected playwright but Theatre By The Lake’s publicity announcing “Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca adapted by…” makes clear this is a piece aimed at recalling the novel, in a Keswick summer with only one main-house non-adaptation.
Lindsay Allen’s second Mrs De Winter frames the action by announcing the story’s famous opening, “Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again,” but the immediate switch to the south of France where this nervous lady’s companion meets her future husband, gives no sense in Ian Forrest’s production this is a dream or waking recollection.
Martin Johns’ set, with its central steps to a platform tailing-off mid-air might intend some hint of this, but it might equally be a compromise space to allow for the multiple locations in the story. Only moments in Nick Beadle’s lighting plot suggest an inner mental swirl.
Rebecca’s known equally well from Alfred Hitchcock’s film (both it and Du Maurier’s novel are available, making this an even less necessary event) but McGuinness includes two significant details not there. The new wife explains she’s Anglo-Irish, her family turfed out adding to a sense of dispossession. And it’s made clear how Rebecca, the first Mrs De Winter, died.
But the story’s darkness is held at bay, even as it’s clear why Maxim married someone so emotionally vulnerable second time around and indicates that he’s as determined as the forceful housekeeper Mrs Danvers to fit the world of Manderley to his own pattern, lying to the person he trusts most to do so.
Allen catches the clipped speech that identifies her class amidst her poverty and Greg Wagland the self Maxim wishes to show, without much sense of darkness within, even in his moments of annoyance. Angela Bain’s Danvers is the opposite of Hitchcock’s looming Judith Anderson; a slight figure she’s determined and ever-likely to be in the way, a compact bundle of malice who implodes on discovering Rebecca had manipulated her as much as any man. Though the culminating fire is hardly evident theatrically, its motive has never been clearer than in this quiet fury’s disillusionment.
Mrs De Winter: Lindsay Allen.
Mrs Danvers: Angela Bain.
Mrs Van Hopper/Grandma/Dr Baker: Sandra Duncan.
Jack Favell: Toby Gaffney.
Robert/Ben/Waiter: Nicholas Goode.
Clarice/Young Wife: Michelle Long.
Giles/Colonel Julyan: Peter Macqueen.
Beatrice: Heather Phoenix.
Maxim De Winter: Greg Wagland.
Frank Crawley/Waiter: Andrew Whitehead.
Frith/Italian General: Eddy York.
Director: Ian Forrest.
Designer: Martin Johns.
Lighting: Nick Beadle.
Sound: James Earls Davis
Movement: Lorelei Lynn
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare
Fight director: Kate Waters
2007-09-04 14:23:00