Brief Encounter review

Since it was first seen in 2008, Emma Rice’s take on this classic romance – smooshing together the 1945 David Lean film and Noël Coward’s earlier one-act play, as well as various of his songs – has become the definitive stage version. Now, Sarah Frankcom returns to the Royal Exchange to direct it.

It’s obvious why: using Coward’s own numbers to allow these ordinary, distinctly repressed characters to let their innermost feelings explode via song really works. Throughout, lovely live music helps inflate their emotions, with almost scene-stealing energy from pianist and musical director Matthew Malone.

And yes, we are talking about characters, multiple: the station staff’s love lives are given almost as much time as the central doomed affair. But this shifts the tone of a story most will know from the film as a classic study in yearning; here, it becomes much more of a larky comedy, thanks to the sweet or saucy interactions of its other lovers.

At times, I felt the contrast between the working-class cheeky humour and the middle-class, ter’bly, ter’bly earnest emotion falls back on old archetypes, rather than interrogating them. But the cast in the supporting roles shine: Christina Modestou is amusingly stern yet lusty as the tearoom manager, while the youthful, trembly attraction between the waitress (Ida Regan) and her adoring beau (Georgia Frost) is full of charm. Regan really proves one to watch, switching effortlessly between endearingly dorky when serving tea, and sumptuously grand when delivering a velvety, internal rendition of Mad About the Boy.

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