After a US and UK tour, including last year’s stop at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, Noel Coward’s BRIEF ENCOUNTER from Director/Adaptor Emma Rice and England’s Kneehigh Theatre is now on Broadway. By staging the film BRIEF ENCOUNTER, the seriousness of the story is lost and in place is a good dose of comedy. This is perfectly fine, for this very creative and original production has made its own world and rules. Added into the mix are projections by Gemma Carrington and Jon Driscoll and original songs by Stu Baker to Noel Coward’s lyrics. This was not a musical per se, but characters did break into songs which revealed character. Other songs were used to serenade the action. The ensemble of actors could all sing and play multiple instruments. The British cast is back, save for two singing characters now being played by Americans. Damon Daunno, plays multiple instruments and sings with a unique and pleasant voice throughout the show. Gabriel Ebert, a near replica of the original “Stanley,” Daniel Canham, was not as dynamic, but crooned with charm. The story follows the accidental meeting and short lived love affair of Laura and Alec. Hannah Yelland as Laura, played the comic style while simultaneously bringing forth the sadness and real dramatic conflict required of the role. Tristan Sturrock, who has been a regular actor with Kneehigh Theatre for the past twenty years made an admirable Alec, managing those 1930s overly romantic lines with passion and credibility––not to mention a humble and sweet singing voice. Although, the intimacy of their performances is lost is the larger Studio 54, making the comedy of the production the dominating element over the pathos.
Taking place in an English train station refreshment cafe and populated by the variety of workers typical of such a place, the story showed various couplings in the early stages of romance. But, the central couple is misguidedly embarking on a romance for they are each married with young children. They meet on Thursdays over a period of several weeks, falling in love quickly and feeling guilty about their relationship, but unable to let go of it until Alec is offered a job that will take him to Africa. The romance awakens these two people––perhaps jolting them into change that will open up their futures to greater things. The relationship has its place and purpose after all and although it is an adulterous one, it is hard to not sympathize with their situation. One thing that makes it easier to accept is that Coward wisely does not introduce us to Alec’s wife and children, so we have no affection for them. Laura’s family is seen, but here the children are clever puppets and the husband (Joseph Alessi) is depicted as a kindly bore, uninterested in Laura’s life outside the home, unconcerned with how his children are parented and mostly concerned with his crossword puzzles. We sort want her to escape such an unexciting world––at least we can’t blame her when she meets her enthusiastic doctor.
The production was as much the star as any one actor in it. The projections say that this play was once a movie (rather well known at that) and that although that movie will be lovingly honored, it will also be torn apart, re-imagined, and explored in new ways. Laura and Alec start their first scene from the audience, as if they were at the movies. On a screen there is, we are told, a movie called “Brief Encounter” showing. Laura’s husband walks into the frame, looks out to the audience and calls for Laura to come back. Eventually she leaves Alec in the audience and literally steps into the movie screen, transforming into a projected image. Her world is a black and white movie––she is stuck in the frame. Off screen is the train station cafe, Alec and a bright and colorful world. The story is as compelling in this new stage adaptation as it is a film. The production is innovative, endlessly creative, musically enchanting, sad and quite hilarious all at once. BRIEF ENCOUNTER still ranks as one of the top ten best productions I’ve seen in New York in the past ten years––a highlight of the decade.
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