On Saturday, we went to see Brief Encounter at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. Directed by our friend Emma Rice, this Kneehigh show is now on tour, as is Don John, the show we saw several months ago at Stratford. Annika had already seen the piece: she saw Brief Encounter on its London debut, an ideal setting. It was staged in a cinema-turned-theatre. Unfortunately, the venue (in London's Haymarket, just off Piccadilly Circus) was completely inaccessible.
The matinee got off to an appalling start. All disabled parking bays were full so we stopped anxiously on double yellow lines. Then we had a truly disgusting meal. A fish slop pretending to be fish pie. A surly, grumpy waitress who failed to hear any of my requests or instructions. For the first time in my life I asked to speak to the catering manager. He tried to explain how the invisible breadcrumb crust was firm and crunchy. (I thought he was going to eat the thing from my plate to make his point). I cut him off and asked that he let me speak without interruption. "There's no need to be aggressive. I was just trying to explain", he replied. Oh dear. I think I need to improve my verbal complaining skills. Still, he was kind enough to refund the cost of the pie.
Then the show. The Everyman is a Frank Matcham theatre, built in 1891. The usher told me it was the oldest surviving complete Matcham theatre in the country. It's a fantastic space with reasonable access given the limitations of the structure. There are automatic doors to get in, accessible toilets (one with a RADAR key lock - an excellent way to prevent non-disabled people from dominating the facilities), reasonable sightlines. The ramp to the stalls is alarmingly steep and caution is required but at least there is one and it's perfectly smooth. I was impressed.
The show itself got off to a slow start as the performers sang in latecomers. Song after song. A lot of latecomers. It was a packed house of generally older people, some of whom sang quietly along with the musical introduction. But once the curtain was up, the pace was relentless. Emma and Kneehigh have an incredible voice. I've never seen a show like this. It's a mix of theatre and dance and circus and film. There were moments of breathtaking magic that had the audience clapping furiously. I've never experienced that in a theatre before, this spontaneous applause. It happened with a magical scene where Laura literally entered the film of Brief Encounter. At one moment, she was on stage. The next, she was in the film. It reminded me of the Woody Allen film The Purple Rose of Cairo where there's an easy fluidity between the real world and the world of the silver screen. I've seen the film of Brief Encounter. (One advantage of spending 14 months in hospital is that you get to catch up on all those movies you should have seen. Lovefilm delivered DVDs to the Spinal Unit, so I made my way through the British and American Film Institutes' top 100). But you don't need to have seen the movie to enjoy the play. In fact, the opposite might be the case. It was very brave and very high-risk to adapt such a beloved film.
I've read several reviews that have criticised Kneehigh for the "liberties" they've taken with the movie. It's worth remembering however that the Noel Coward estate allowed Emma to adapt the play on the condition that only the original words were used. She agreed. It's a heart-breaking story. Knowing what was going to happen made it difficult to watch. It's like seeing a car crash in slow motion. There was a moment of real poignancy where one of the secondary characters comments "it'll end in tears". I felt jarred: I know it does end in tears. And I was surprised to hear the audience collapse into laughter. I know the character says it in an amused and wry way but is it just a mundane affair? Given its intensity, I doubt. The nearly-lovers sacrifice their passion on the altar of middle class respectability. Laura returns, dead inside, to her solid and dependable and boring husband. Mundane? No.
What I found particularly extraordinary was how Noel Coward, a gay man, managed to perfectly capture the feelings and raw emotion of the nearly-lovers. Then again, as a gay man in the 1920s, who could have known more about the heart-break and impossibility of illicit love? I've never seen a show that reveals so much about love. We are told three different love stories. Young love, lust, unbridled passion. Moments of pure eroticism. Scenes of such sexual tension you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre. A mountain range of emotions from pure bliss to absolute despair.
I said the same about Don John: you must see this show. Beg, borrow, steal: do whatever you must to get a ticket. Brief Encounter is on tour. We drove over one hundred miles in our round trip to see it. I'd have driven for 250 miles without hesitation.
