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Alec and Laura, a couple, married but not to each other, are declaring their feelings for one another in the front row of a cinema. They seem to be reaching a conclusion that they must part, then the events of their affair unfold in flashback. They met in a railway station buffet, when Laura was seeking help removing a piece of grit from her eye whisked up by a passing train. Alec, a doctor, assists her in removing the offending item. A week later they meet again, and introduce themselves more formally. It transpires that they each have cause to be in town every Thursday and this becomes a regular rendezvous for them. Each are lacking something in their lives and find it in each other. Over time, friendship blossonms into love, but at the same time their relationship becomes more sordid, and shameful. Their love is forbidden, and eventually they realise it must end.
This is a play based upon a film ('Brief Encounter') that was itself derived from a Noel Coward play ('Still Life). The original play was an earnest and heartfelt one-acter, but in stretching their own quirky production to full length Kneehigh have slotted in a number of humourous Coward songs and monologues as an aside to the action - a ribbed curtain falling as we suddenly find ourselves transported into Vaudeville. Unfortunately, this is done in such a way and to such a degree that the actual story effectively becomes subordinate to, and overwhelmed by, the other goings on.
The set comprises two piles of coal (symbolic of steam trains) with the station cafe represented by a single table and upright piano standing in for serving counter. One coal pile has a ledge which is occupied throughout most of the production by a pair of musicians providing a musical accompaniment to the action, whilst the other contains a trampoline used by one of the characters for entrances and exits. Various props are brought on and off stage by the actors to represent other locations. Special effects are on occasion put to good use, particularly in a scene where a train passes through the station at high speed, wherein a low white curtain is rapidly whisked across the stage onto which an image of the passing carriages are projected, before the screen is whisked away again with the last carriage.
As a comedy this is in general mildy amusing with a scattering of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. A comic song by two kilted Scottish Soldiers and a lewdly suggestive song and dance with balloons by waitress Beryl provided the two best comic moments. On the whole though, the humour was strained and/or misplaced. Beryl's entrances and exits on a childs scooter and boyfriend Stanley's on the trampoline were only mildly funny and grew less so the more they were used.
As a piece of musical theatre it is for the most part moderately entertaining, again with just a few outstanding moments, like the afore-mentioned comic songs.
As romantic drama, however, it fails to engage us in any way whatsoever. In this respect, directorially, the whole affair is a complete disaster. The two central players, Naomi Frederick as Laura and Tristan Sturrock as Alec, play it straight and it must be said that they step out and act their parts extremely well, but they are forced by the direction into being acting automatons, restricted to delivering their lines in a classically stereotyped, clipped and somewhat remote manner. To an extent this is in keeping with the emotional and social mores of the period. But they never relax, never become free with one another as their relationship progresses - even in private it seems this wall of social convention stands between them. Their dialogue in fact is so stilted throughout that they may as well have been discussing cricket for all the feeling of passion we get from them. Indeed, at the moments of greatest passion, the actors are not allowed to demonstrate their art at all, but are instead required to lean over backwards as a breaking wave is symbollically projected onto a screen at the rear of the stage. Even the tragic ending is totally deprived of any emotional effect by manically over-the-top piano playing.
Consequently, although Tristan and Naomi do their jobs well within the shackles that director Emma Rice has placed upon them, the only actors to come out of this with any real credit are Stuart McLaughlin as Stanley, for his singing and banjoing, and Amanda Lawrence, for her comic balloon song and wonderful characterisations, including the scatter-brained Beryl and a bookstore clerk that was an almost perfect impersonation of Victoria Wood.
If you are looking for a good romantic drama, then I can only advise you to look elsewhere. There is nothing here to wet, or even moisten, your hanky. For the reasons elicited previously we are not engaged by, and have little feeling for, the predicament of the central characters. This production is perhaps worth seeing for some of the comic songs and monologues, but for little else. Kneehigh theatre company are touted as one of the country's most innovative and imaginative companies. I think the lesson of this production is that innovation and imagination are laudible traits, but when applied purely for their own sakes they are not necessarily a good thing.
Entertaining for it's moments of pure Noel Coward but substantially flawed and unconvincing as a drama.