Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and Touring

Picture: Marc Brenner

Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter was reviewed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford. The UK tour continues until 3 June 2023.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Noël Coward’s wartime screenplay for David Lean’s classic black and white film Brief Encounter (1945), itself based on Coward’s one-act stage play Still Life (1936), was rightly judged the greatest romantic film of all time by The Guardian a decade ago for its depiction of the touching yet ultimately bittersweet liaison that unfolds in a train station cafe between suburban housewife Laura Jesson and the gentlemanly (also married) physician, Dr Alec Harvey.

This stage adaptation by Emma Rice, originally presented in a Kneehigh Theatre production in 2008, returns Coward’s story to its original theatrical setting, conflating elements of both the play and the film with the addition of musical numbers. In so doing, it brings to the fore the two other station couplings whose burgeoning romances counterpoint that of Laura and Alec: young (perhaps first-time) lovers Beryl and Stanley; and cafe owner Myrtle Bagot and station master Albert Godby.

Director Douglas Rintoul has evidently relished the opportunity to reprise Rice’s adaptation in this production from New Wolsey Theatre and Wiltshire Creative in association with the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, which, among many artful directorial decisions, incorporates various nods to Brief Encounter’s previous cinematic incarnation. While not a fully-fledged musical, the inclusion of 10 songs drawn mainly from Coward’s own back catalogue, seamlessly interwoven with original music composed by musical director Tom Self, takes the show a refreshingly musical direction.

The show is robustly led by Hanora Kamen and Jammy Kasongo as Laura and Alec, whose love story is the focal point of Act II in particular. But it is the other six members of the company that truly make this production distinctive: whereas previous iterations of Rice’s adaptation included a separate band, in this one all the music is performed live, mostly onstage, by the supporting cast (although Kamen and Kasongo are afforded the opportunity to showcase their musical skills towards the end of the evening as well).

In this respect, they function as a kind of Greek chorus reflecting on Laura and Alec’s developing romance, replacing effectively the internal monologue of Celia Johnson’s voiceovers as Laura in the originating film. This is in addition to playing ancillary characters within the main story, notably Nicola Bryan as Mrs Bagot, Samuel Morgan-Grahame as Godby, Lucy Elizabeth Thorburn as Beryl and Luke Thornton as Stanley. Musical director Self, who also reorchestrated the entire musical score to match the cast’s unique combination of instruments, doubles as Laura’s distant husband Fred and Alec’s judgemental friend Stephen Lynn.

With most of the actors playing multiple roles (and sometimes also multiple instruments) across the show, the published programme does not always help in identifying who is portraying whom at a given point; Chioma Uma, for instance, who features throughout the evening, is credited only as Dolly Messiter, which character does not appear until the very end. That said, the plot is readily followable, the only real moment requiring suspension of disbelief – superbly acted though it is – being the casting of the bearded Morgan-Grahame as one of Laura’s young children.

Audiences will be astonished by the limitless talent on display: multiple actors simultaneously singing and playing, and often also moving around the stage; Bryan juggling flute and trumpet during the same song; Self switching places at the piano with Uma mid-song; and even a neatly choreographed trumpet/trombone duet for Bryan and Morgan-Grahame during Mrs Bagot and Godby’s big number. The only real danger, especially in Act I which focuses on the ensemble as much as the principal story, is that the supporting cast might eclipse the fine acting of Kamen and Kasongo.

The lead vocals are shared admirably around the company, giving various actors the opportunity to shine, starting with Thornton, who not only sings while simultaneously accompanying himself on the double bass, but daringly balances on the side of his instrument while doing so. ‘Mad About the Boy’, featuring the astonishing vocals of Thorburn (also a gifted guitarist), is similarly a standout performance. Other of Coward’s songs that make an appearance include ‘Go Slow, Johnny’, which underscores one of the most intimate moments between Laura and Alec; while the honour of the final number, ‘A Room With a View’, is appropriately granted to Kasongo.

A musical pre-show introduces us to a quartet of cast members (Self on piano accordion, Uma on violin, Morgan-Grahame on percussion and Thornton on his trademark double bass) dressed as ushers, whose roles creatively cross over into the start of the main evening’s entertainment. At the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre its success is limited by the extent to which the unamplified band carries over the background noise of the audience waiting in the foyer, but this is evidently specific to the venue, and in any case it takes nothing away from the onstage performance.

The addition of the songs notwithstanding, Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter remains a comparatively short theatrical experience, each act lasting around 45 minutes in length. But in this case, less is certainly more. Featuring a stellar cast and taking actor-musicianship to a new level, this production in some respects even surpasses the iconic film itself.

Christopher Wiley