When I first saw this production of “Agnes Colander” from the front row at the Ustinov studio at the Theatre Royal Bath in April 2018, I was struck by how effectively they created the atmosphere and feel of the two contrasting locations of the play and of the period. In Act 1 scene1 we were in an Edwardian accommodation occupied by Agnes as an artist’s studio with a large skylight in London surrounded by her half-finished work and through a slick scene change in the rest of the play, we were in a remote French coastal with an artist workspace on the balcony outside. It helped set the tone for the action and the performances and it felt naturalistic.
Somehow when designer Robert Jones was asked to redesign the production for the small Jermyn Street Theatre all of this was lost. The features of the rooms could not be accommodated, and the central table and chairs feels too large for the thin narrow acting space which seemed to constrain the movement and blocking. It is left to Paul Pyant to create the location atmosphere with his lighting design in the dingy mouldy London flat and the bright summery French cottage. As a result, the actors seem to over compensate in their performances and the already wordy dialogue seems laboured and stilted.
