JADAR

★★★☆☆

Many critics, historians and scholars cite Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter as one of the greatest films all time. Adapting it for the stage, then, is no easy feet. There have been two stage adaptations of Brief Encounter, both based on both the film and Still Life, Noël Coward’s one-act stage play on which the film is based. The latter, adapted by Emma Rice when she was the Artistic Director of Kneehigh, has been revived many times.

The latest revival takes place at the Royal Exchange Theatre, where it has been directed by Sarah Frankcom, the theatre’s previous Artistic Director who also adapted last year’s Christmas production, Betty! A Sort of Musical.

Brief Encounter follows a passionate extramarital relationship in England shortly before World War II. The protagonist is Laura, a married woman with children, whose conventional life becomes increasingly complicated after a chance meeting at a railway station with a married stranger, a community GP, with whom she subsequently falls in love.

One can appreciate how bold and radical Brief Encounter was in the 1940s, much like Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (which sees a housewife abandon her husband and children) was in the late 1800s, but neither story is scandalous or shocking to a modern audience.

The continued success of the play is perhaps not so much testament to the story’s timelessness as it is the nostalgia associated with the iconic film.

This revival is still set in the late 1930s, complete with appropriate costumes and music of the period (played live by a brilliant band who sit behind the bar onstage), but the casting provides a contemporary context. Laura is played by the delightful Hannah Azuonye, a mixed-race woman, whilst the charming Baker Mukasa, a Black man, plays her lover, Alec. Laura’s husband, Fred, is played by Richard Glaves (who plays several roles, each wonderfully characterised), a White man.

The racial dynamic, in which a mixed-race woman cheats on her White husband with a Black man, adds another layer, though it might have been more bold if Laura was a White woman cheating with a Black man – a forbidden romance not only because it is adulterous but also interracial.

In the second act, Alec announces that he is leaving to join a medical practice in South Africa, which was, of course, governed by Apartheid until the 1990s. This appears to implicitly acknowledge race and social change. This additional context is welcome because, as talented as the central pair are, they lack the chemistry to make the romance believable – or to make the audience care.

Georgia Frost, an androgynous actress, plays two male roles masterfully: Stanley and Jonnie. Stanley is the love interest of Beryl (played by an angelic Ida Regan, who thrives in all four of her roles). Whilst Frost plays Stanley as a man, the real-life gender-twist does not go unnoticed.

Whilst one appreciates the additional albeit implicit context provided by the conscious casting – without changing a single word of the script or ever addressing the race and gender changes directly – they are not enough to make this old play feel relevant. The play, though ahead of its time, now feels dated.

The Royal Exchange Theatre often cast people of colour in classics without directly addressing the context. Earlier this year, they cast Black actors as the plantation-owning family at the centre of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but race was never addressed; the casting was superficial and, thus, a missed opportunity.

Theatre differs to film and television insofar that anybody can be cast any anybody. Casting people of colour and queer folk in a classic is not enough to captivate modern audiences – not when diverse casting is increasingly becoming the norm in theatre and is a convention of Royal Exchange productions.

Older folk, those familiar with the film or those who have seen any of the many stage adaptations (it was revived by Octagon in Bolton last Christmas), are sure to be enticed. But I, a 24-year-old person of colour, struggled to connect to it – until the tense scene towards the end of act 2, where Laura almost does something drastic… But then she doesn’t do it!

A racially-charged reimagining of the old text might have captivated me – as would have a more visually striking production.

Indeed, this dated play would have been well-served with excellent production value but sadly the designers opted for a more minimalistic approach, even though the Royal Exchange Theatre is a versatile space with ample opportunity for striking set design.

That said, there are some wonderful design choices. The fixed set consists of a café bar, complete with china cups and cakes, at one side of the stage. There is a huge clock that hangs down from the ceiling – the kind you’d find in an old railway station, like the one where the play is located.

The opening of the second act sees the clock open up to reveal branches of white blossom, with the singing cast holding additional branches. The blossom is a metaphor for the central pair’s blossoming love. But blossom dies, and as the spectating Myrtle (Christina Modestou) tells the audience early on in act 1, “It’ll all end in tears”.

Rose Revitt’s simple set has nods to the railway setting of the play. The revolve conveys the central pair’s whirlwind romance, with actors leaping on and off like it is a moving train, but it could have been used more excitingly. The stage is covered in lines which light up to represent train tracks but can also represent paths which see the pair caught at a literal crossroads. The barriers of the gallery rattle and light up as trains go by. Early on, there is a scene where stories play out simultaneously, like passing trains.

The second act includes a fantastic dance number, with the marvellous Matthew Allen (Bobbie/Bill) playing a trumpet and tap-dancing. The production finally feels like a musical – but only for a moment.

The show is not so much a musical as it is a play with music. A short while into the first act, there is a music number, but then another is not performed for awhile, when suddenly there are several big numbers one after another. It’s inconsistent and imbalanced, and the dazzling dance number feels out of place.

Brief Encounter is, essentially, a jukebox play with music, with numerous hits from the Coward songbook. Modestou – who chews up the scenery as her three characters, especially the wonderfully Welsh café manager Myrtle – delivers a roaring rendition of ‘I Am No Good at Love’, whilst Regan proudly shows off her vocal range in ‘Mad About the Boy’.

There is some nice humour in the play. Memorably, when the central pair enter the café during act 2 and Myrtle encourages her secret lover to quieten down, he remarks, “It’s only Romeo and Juliet!”

This is a well-designed, well-cast, sweet play with sound music numbers but it is quaint, twee, and sadly unmemorable. Since 2015, I have seen and loved every single Royal Exchange festive production – until now.

Before the pandemic, under the Artistic Direction of Frankcom, the festive production was always a classic musical, such as Guys and Dolls. Her successors, Joint Artistic Directors Bryony Shanahan and Roy Alexander Weise MBE, both of whom recently left the organisation, were more daring: they revived the little-known play with music The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and produced the world premiere of Betty! A Sort of Musical. Both were divisive but they were inarguably ambitious and undeniably entertaining.

Brief Encounter, though passionate and at times intense, lacks the sparkle of previous festive productions. It would have been better suited to late Spring or early Autumn.

The Royal Exchange Theatre have played it safe in 2023, with a programme consisting mostly of revivals of classics, which are guaranteed to sell well. Their Spring Summer 2024 season consists of four plays, three of which are directorial debuts, so there is opportunity for ambition and imagination, which were sadly lacking in Brief Encounter.

Brief Encounter runs at the Royal Exchange Theatre until January 13.

Photo: Johan Persson