Review - Noel Coward's Brief Encounter - People's Theatre

Noel Coward's Brief Encounter

The People's Theatre 

22nd November 2022

Although I am aware of the film, Brief Encounter and who isn't? I don't think I have ever actually seen it all the way through. I know that it's about a chance meeting between two people at a railway station that leads to an affair of sorts that doesn't have a happy ending. It's iconic and atmospheric. Quite a tall order to reproduce successfully. The key to Emma Rice's adaptation of this iconic drama is that she looks beyond the initial story and builds on it - giving depth to the characters who are incidental to main story, and using their stories and relationships to illuminate that of the lovers Alec and Laura. Added to this are music and dance numbers using songs by Noel Coward. 

Director Anna Dobson has taken all of this and produced a kind of jazz opera, with beautifully choreographed scenes that merge and melt into each other, which gives the sense of the passage of time for as the relationship between Alec and Laura develops - time seems to rush by, and yet the days drag until they can see each other. It feels as if they have known each other forever, and yet it has only been a few short weeks.   

The performances are such a mixture of humour and heartache as we watch the relationships develop between Beryl and Stanley, and Myrtle and Albert full of fun and, frankly, sex, set against the more chaste and polite relationship of Laura and Alec. 

The set, the costumes, the music, the choreography combine to create a sumptuous production with outstanding performances from everyone but especially from Sarah Scott as Myrtle Baggot and Paul Carding as Albert Godby who almost stole the show, and poignant performances by Alec Harvey and Sarah Jo Harrison as Alec and Laura. Yet it seems unfair to single out some performers and not others in this compelling and entertaining production. 

This, and the earlier production of Around the World in 80 Days, feel like the People's Theatre has come out of lockdown with a new and invigorated zest for life.

Playing until Sat 26th November, this brief encounter will leave a lasting impression! 

*photo credit : Mark Burden 

Denise Sparrowhawk