Categories

Find Us

Brief Encounter – Shakespeare Theatre Company Kneehigh Productions

Jordan Wright
March 31, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 

Hannah Yelland as Laura, Joe Alessi as Albert, Annette McLaughlin as Mrytle, Dorothy Atkinson as Beryl and Damon Daunno as Stanley in Kneehigh’s U.S. tour of Brief Encounter by Jim Cox

Hannah Yelland as Laura, Joe Alessi as Albert, Annette McLaughlin as Mrytle, Dorothy Atkinson as Beryl and Damon Daunno as Stanley in Kneehigh’s U.S. tour of Brief Encounter by Jim Cox

Perhaps writer Noel Coward wouldn’t have conjured up this captivating version of his one-act play, but surely he would have swooned over it.  Based on the 1945 film of the same name, Adaptor/Director Emma White has created an innovative and charming version that blends both film and theater mediums.  Kneehigh productions, a Cornish theatre company, who have already garnered two Tony Award nominations for this touring musical takes the audience into the realm of the silver screen and the age of witty repartee Coward and his sophisticated coterie were known for.

The love story of Brief Encounter, determined in a recent poll by Britain’s The Guardian to be the most romantic of all time (beating out Gone with the Wind and Casablanca), involves three couples.  Laura (Hannah Yelland), a wife with two young children takes the Thursday train into town to do her shopping while Alec (Jim Sturgeon), a country doctor takes the same train to do his once-a-week rounds at a city hospital.  They meet and quickly fall in love when he offers to take a speck of coal dust from her eye on the station’s platform and their relationship blossoms with each week’s encounter.

Another romance is between the stationmaster, Albert (Joe Alessi), a cocky chap with eyes on Myrtle Bagot (Annette McLaughlin) the sassy tearoom’s manager, where much of the action takes place.  The third liaison is between Myrtle’s assistant, Beryl (Dorothy Atkinson), a childlike sprite and Stanley (Damon Daunno), her ardent admirer, who is a candy vendor.

The action is underpinned with music, some from Coward’s own repertoire and other pieces, like a sweeping Rachmaninoff concerto to show how Laura and Alec are swept off their feet, from other sources.  Each piece is intrinsic to the mood and serves to heighten the tension in the developing romances.  Composer Stu Barker contributes several pieces of original music that subtly modernize the whole.

Projection & Film Designers Gemma Carrington and Jon Driscoll create a lovely vintage quality with black and white footage of train stations and dream sequences of crashing waves and underwater scenes, which the actors themselves often transition into by walking through a seam in the screen.  In fact there are so many innovative choreographics, atmospherics by Malcolm Rippeth, and complex sound effects by Simon Baker that blur the line between reality and fantasy.

Hannah Yelland as Laura and Jim Sturgeon as Alec in Kneehigh’s U.S. tour of Brief Encounter by Jim Cox

Hannah Yelland as Laura and Jim Sturgeon as Alec in Kneehigh’s U.S. tour of Brief Encounter by Jim Cox

A particularly memorable moment in Laura and Alec’s romance is when they show their passion by swinging on chandeliers while film footage projected onto the backdrop shows falling stars, whirling planets and rising champagne bubbles.  In another lively scene marked by Albert’s increasing bravado, he engages Myrtle with a bit of “slap-and-tickle” to the audience’s great delight.

Costume Designer Neil Murray cleverly adds touches of painterly red – – a velvet coat, Beryl’s pumps, Myrtle’s dress, Stanley’s vest, a red rose – – to accentuate the drably colored world of British tweeds.

In a scene where Laura and Alec are hoping to consummate their love, a musician strums a ukulele singing “Go Slow, Johnny”, a haunting ballad from Coward’s songbook and one of the highlights of this tender, hilarious and extraordinarily original show.

Highly recommended.

Through April 13th at the Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20003. For tickets and information contact the Box Office at 202 547-1122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.

The cast in Kneehigh’s U.S. tour of Brief Encounter by Jim Cox

The cast in Kneehigh’s U.S. tour of Brief Encounter by Jim Cox

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

  

  

  

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.