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 Having reached a slightly over-ripe age, I have to admit that I have seen David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945) probably a hundred times. It was difficult for me to think of anyone other than Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in the lead roles. For reasons I cannot fathom, I had never realised that Noël Coward had written the script. So mired was I in the piece as a post-war romantic drama that the idea of it being turned into what amounted to a musical was a bit of a surprise, particularly as I had not realised that the multi-talented Coward had written it. It was thus with some trepidation that I set out with a friend to see it.
Taking such a well-known film and turning it into a musical, then undertaking a production with the available players, rather than through a ‘normal’ audition process, seems to me to be a brave thing to do – but it worked admirably, so congratulations to the author, Emma Rice, for the idea, and to Rob Ellis and Jonathan Norris for their directorial efforts. Such a multi-talented team of players and production staff!
The band that greeted us were excellent, even if their vocal skills were a bit mixed in abilities. Somehow, this added to the production. The musical insertions were, without exception, really well done. Particularly good were Mad About the Boy (sung by Imogen Front as Beryl), the singing of Tom Lafferty (Stanley) in various numbers, and others too numerous to mention. I really liked Colin Guthrie’s version of There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner – as he said in his introduction, perhaps even more apt today, and the Go Slow, Johnny ensemble. All in all, the music was very good and fitted well into the piece. Jonathan Norris reminded me very heavily of Arthur Lowe’s Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, although Mr. Norris is probably more musical! This only added to the atmosphere of 1940s England that was being projected.
The scenery was very well done, given the spatial constraints of the venue. Well done, David Taylor and those who built it. I never cease to be amazed at the ingenuity of the designers at the Tower. Where do you find the props? I think the tea set used was 1960s, rather than 1940s, but together this worked – and I am a total pedant!
Lighting was excellent, especially the passing train and boat effects. The curtains used as "trainside" produced an interesting way of showing this. Once again, the ambient sound was well thought out, so, well done Rob Ellis and Stephen Ley.
In the main, costumes were good. Laura might not have worn the lacy looking suit for shopping, it was more of an evening outfit, and Myrtle’s (Deborah Lee) dress needed a lower waist. Beryl’s dress was a tadge too short, as was Laura’s underslip. I think the catering team would have been more likely to be wearing some sort of overall and hat combination than "civvies", from what I can remember as a child (and, no, I wasn’t around in 1945 but there were a lot of shortages of various sorts, so workwear ruled. Shoes were in keeping – something which is often hard to do. I come from a railway family (three generations of them), so Albert (great performance by Matthew Vickers) would have been wearing railway uniform. There were quite strict rules about this.
Without exception, the performances were excellent. Flyin Ifebogun’s various performances were good – but the one that shone out was her turn as the waitress serving Alec and Laura at lunch – the dismissive, wordless looks were a joy to behold. Britain was really like this once!
Once again, well done to a multi-talented cast and production team on a production which totally drew me in. The various romantic relationships were beautifully drawn and the Tower has done it again.
As a postscript, the friend who came with me told me that she had not seen the film (not sure how this is possible). At the end, having said how much she had enjoyed it, she added that there were scenes that she recognised and she was not sure if she had, in fact, seen the film, or just cuts from it. She left determined to see the film.
Photography by Pau Ros
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