A celebrated musical of one of the best loved British movies of all time returns to the West End after thrilling audiences on tour and internationally.
Appropriately you can see it, not in a theatre but in a converted art-deco cinema next to where PHANTOM OF THE OPERA plays, on the Haymarket.BRIEF ENCOUNTER is a simple and moving account of a series of snatched romantic meetings between a doctor and a housewife who connect, by chance, on an English station platform in post WW2 England. They’re both married to other people and must choose between their passion, which could mean social disgrace and destroying their marriages, and parting forever.
It’s by Noel Coward and began life as a short play before he adapted it for the screen to be directed by revered vintage film director David Lean. Shot in black and white, the film is an evocative depiction of forbidden love in an oppressive society. It’s shot through with thundering romantic music by Tchaikovsky and haunting shots of steam trains that evoke a lost, simpler world. I defy you not to cry whilst watching it.
The stage musical expresses some of the inner passion with beautiful expressionistic touches in the non-realistic settings and expands some of the secondary comedy roles to provide a contrast with the quiet drama of the central love story.
The film is such a delicate and subtle work that I’d never have expected punctuating the main action with song and dance routines by Noel Coward and broad slapstick would work, but it really does.
Isabel Pollen and Jim Sturgeon take care of the serious romantic stuff and triumph as the central characters Laura and Alec, with a quiet dignity that melts your heart; whilst Lucy Thackeray and Dean Nolan play the station’s bossy cafe owner and her ticket-collector boyfriend with larger than life comedy. Beverley Rudd and Jos Slovik are a third younger couple discovering all the fun of teenage love. Rudd and Nolan also play a range of other characters, in perfectly judged performances that serve the plot or provide additional comic relief. Most of the cast also retreat to the sides of the stage to play musical instruments.
The staging is very clever, interspersing film sequences with live action. Actors literally climb in and out of the screen and the steam trains are beautifully evoked with massive projections or, at one point, a cute model railway.
The whole gorgeous concoction has been dreamt up by adaptor and director Emma Rice who, true to form, delivers an evening that’s funny, romantic, evocative and you may well need the little hanky provided in the programme to wipe away your tears.
Don’t miss the chance to see British theatre at its most imaginative and life enhancing.
This expansive production of Hamlet fills every inch of the fantastic Hackney Empire with its elaborate colours and booming attitude. Set in West Africa, Designer Paul Wills has truly made this production a feast for the eyes, with the stage wrapped in drapes of patterned wax fabric and brilliant performers who play drums while the lighting allows us to live in this warm atmosphere.