In April 2018 I saw Emma Rice’s stage adaption of the classic 1945 film Brief Encounter on its return to the Haymarket London and a year later The Watermill’s wonderful adaption of the acclaimed French film Amelie which has just recently completed its West End run. Both showed how you could take a strong romantic film and bring it to the stage with fresh energy without losing the cinematic feel. It was therefore fascinating to see how the Watermill evolved the Emma Rice adaption of the classic David Lean film to the tiny Newbury stage which had worked so well for Amelie. While it has retained much of the delightful charm, its attempts to replace the cinematic quality of the London Production with its own theatrical twists were less successful.
Gone are the ushers dressed in period costumes, the projected film for the cast to interact with and the flying fantasy sequence and in its place, there is the feel of another classic film to stage adaptation,39 Steps, with the cast spending quite long well-choreographed sequences moving props on and off the stage and making do with picture frames to depict train windows. Then they have added for the Watermill, which one cast member calls “the heart and home of actor-musicians”, a cast who play Noel Coward songs from the period to fill in between scenes. It makes it feel more episodic and while there is a fluidity of movement it makes a more disjointed production like a thirty’s cabaret at times. It is somewhat distracting to find a cast member with a violin tucked under their arm or dancing around the main characters while playing.
The other notable element of the production is the introduction of Foley effects to emphasise particular sounds and add humour to the show. The oft-repeated sequence of pouring out tea and milk at the counter with exaggerated movements is accompanied by a stage right live sound effect (although I am not sure all of the audience noticed this as it was tucked behind a pillar). Foley Sound is a great art form in itself and if you are going to include it (as we have seen in some staged radio plays in the past) then it needs to be consistent on all liquid pouring and more visible to the audience to appreciate the techniques.
Emma Rice’s adaptation plays up two secondary relationships amongst the station staff and here they are played for vaudevillian laughs throughout. Café manageress, Myrtle Bagot (played by Kate Milner Evans)is partial to an afternoon delight with station manager Albert Godby (played by Charles Angiama) and her waitress Beryl (Hanna Khogali) is attracted to a porter Stanley (Oliver Ashton). These working-class liaisons with their public displays of passion are intended to contrast sharply with the guilt-ridden true love of the middle-class couple in their brief encounters. Callum McIntyre is the smooth charming married doctor Alec who falls for the restrained slightly sad figure of Laura (married with two children) played by Laura Lake Adebisi. Their repressed smouldering passion stilted by the clipped speech and fear of discovery does not quite outshine the comic antics of the other couples.
The Noel Coward love songs which feel shoehorned in still have a charm and are delightfully sung especially by Kate Milner-Evans showing her operatic background with MD Max Gallagher on the piano behind the cafe counter. “A room with a view” (written in 1928), “Any Little Fish” (1930),” "Mad About the Boy” (1931) and “Go-Slow Johnny” (1961) are among 300 songs Coward wrote. If anything, their inclusion made you yearn for a proper Coward music show which might have included “Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington” and “Mad dogs and Englishmen”. It is always a danger when you restage a classic that it makes you desire to return to the original more than embracing the adaption and this version of this story made me want to watch the original film again where the writing, performances and cinematography created an enduring romantic classic. But perhaps like Amelie before it, it will bring this music and story to a whole new audience in an enjoyable way and that makes it very worthwhile.Review by Nick Wayne
Rating: ★★★
Seat: Stalls, Row G | Price of Ticket: £28
