REVIEW: Brief Encounter at the Watermill Theatre

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.

REVIEW: Brief Encounter at the Empire Cinema Haymarket

Emma Rice's Brief Encounter was first staged over ten years ago and has been acclaimed in its travels since then. It returns to the Art Deco Empire cinema, in Haymarket, London for a season until 2nd September. When it first appeared it was an imaginative unique combination of a cinematic and theatrical experience but since then we have seen the development of Secret Cinema as an annual event in London, which makes this combination so brilliantly immersive, and the broadcast of live theatre to cinemas all around the country. 

There is a logic to the use of the Empire cinema which has been dressed for the show in red carpet and roses and fits as a venue that Laura and Alec might have visited in their illicit afternoon meetings. However, the long stairs up to the auditorium or down to the toilets makes the venue less accessible and makes it less than ideal for the older audience who this title might appeal to.