Theater Review: Brief Encounter

Film, Stage Versions, Waves Crash
By Lauren Yarger
The worlds of film and stage collide in a new rendering of Noel Coward’s story of an impossible affair between two married people in Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Brief Encounter, adapted and directed by Emma Rice.

This version, combining elements of video, special effects and original music by Stu Barker, tries really hard to recapture the charm and clever staging of another film-to-stage hit, The 39 Steps, a tongue-in-cheek rendering of the Alfred Hitchcock classic still running Off-Broadway after a critically acclaimed Broadway presentation. Brief Encounter falls short, however, as all of the elements, while interesting in their own right, fail to come together to create a parody of the film or a cohesive story, for that matter.

Much of the presentation is a lot of fun. There are comedic actors (Annette McLaughlin as a horny waitress of the rail station cafe and Dorothy Atkinson as her assistant among other characters), puppets (two mop dogs are particularly funny) and terrific special effects that allow the characters to travel in and out a movie screen and swing from chandeliers -- literally (Neil Murray, set and costume design; Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington, production design; Malcolm Rippeth, lighting design; Steve Beers, technical supervisor). The story about the two lovers just gets lost in the mix.

Laura (Hannah Yelland) and Alec (Tristan Sturrock) share an attraction after a brief meeting in the train station, then allow their passion to grow with subsequent encounters, despite the fact that both already are married. Laura’s husband, Fred (Joseph Alessi) doesn’t seem to notice Laura’s absences, even when she’s nowhere to be found when their son (played by a puppet) is in an accident.

We’re supposed to grasp that the crashing waves projected onto a screen behind the action represents the unsatiated passion that Alec and Laura feel for each other. Meetings in secret rooms and the taking off of clothes following a spill into the water during a rowboat encounter lead us to think the couple are having an affair. Fans of the movie, and perhaps those who read a story in the Playbill, will know that the affair is unconsummated and the waves only symbolic of feeling, not depiction of anything actually happening. If the waves weren’t crashing, however, you might miss that pent-up passion, because the straight-laced characters really don’t have any apparent chemistry. That Alec is struggling with any guilt also is lost, as the fact that he’s married doesn’t become clear in Rice’s adaptation until the story is almost completed.

There are subplots with Myrtle (McLaughlin) and Albert (also Alessi) getting physical and Stanley (Gabriel Ebert), the candy vendor, declaring his love for the clumsy, scooter-riding Beryl, who gets physical with a bass instrument while singing Coward’s “Mad About the Boy” (the musicians are costumed, on stage and provide some period music before and after the show). There are a few attempts to copy the hysterically funny windy scenes and tiny prop bits from The 39 Steps, but everything remains disjointed with the impression that each element was added to stand out on its own, rather than to be part of a larger work.

Brief Encounter runs through Dec. 6 at Studio 54, 254 W54th St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling (212) 719-1300.

Christians might also like to know:
• A bathing suit in a film projection is rather scanty.



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