Brief Encounter

Synopsis

Coward's great tale of illicit love adapted from the 1946 film by David Lean. Set in the winter of 1938-39, it tells of Laura, an ordinary respectable housewife, and Alec, a doctor. Both are middle class and married (happily, they believe) to other people, when, after a chance meeting at Milford Junction Train Station, where Alec gallantly remove a piece of grit from Laura's eye, they embark on a 6-week affair. Your heart will lift at their new-found love and sink again as they struggle against their feelings to deny their destiny together - and the stirring up of countless memories of a true classic in the history of British film.

Our Review:

18 February 2008

At a time in our theatrical history when the interaction between successful movies and their new stage versions is often cynically, lazily and unimaginatively prosecuted, this stunning alliance between a commercial management, Kneehigh Theatre, the Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse will prove a famous landmark in the new hybrid genre.

Unlike Kneehigh’s recent makeover of A Matter of Life and Death at the National – which demeaned a great film with hollow trickery and false conclusions – director Emma Rice and her design team led by Neil Murray and Malcolm Rippeth go to the heart of Noel Coward’s emotional story of impossible love in a railway station buffet and make genuine theatrical whoopee with its romanticism and social setting.

The Cinema on the Haymarket is the Cineworld, the former Carlton Theatre, built in 1927 and last used for stage purposes by Anthony Newley in 1960. The largest of the three cinemas in the complex – occupying the old grand...

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Latest User Review

ILS - 3 August 2008:

Excellent a must see....

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