BRIEF ENCOUNTER at Roundabout's Studio 54

(Seen 11/1/10)

A thoroughly enchanting and entertaining experience awaits theatre-goers at this ultra-clever re-interpretation of Noel Coward's classic play and film. With British understatement and overstatement, director/adapter Emma Rice brings her Kneehigh Theatre Company's production to a joyous and visually exciting realization at Studio 54.

The basic story of an unconsummated love affair of two strangers who meet and fall in love at a railway station is so smartly portrayed in this mixture of live performers interacting with film sequences, and with a multitude of simple props, all set against a background of everyday British life.

It is the stuff of British music halls and buskers, punctuated by few words, much action, many visuals, and pertinent songs by Noel Coward and Stu Barker.

Its ensemble cast of nine, led by Hannah Yelland and Tristan Sturrock as the unfulfilled lovers, are multi-talented and perfectly attuned to their varied roles. This is an inventive theatre piece which Emma Rice projects wonderfully from its grounded Coward roots to a soaring height of enjoyment.