‘Brief Encounter’ – Empire Cinema Haymarket – Saturday 21st July 2018

(Rated 8/5 ) 

This is a beautifully free totally inspired re-imagining by Emma Rice of Noel Coward’s ‘Brief Encounter’. It expertly combines cinema and theatre and all around and in between using actors going from one to the other through screen/cloth curtains and other media such a puppetry to represent children and dogs together with a set which – incorporating just little changes – can easily be imagined as the railway café, a living-room, outside settings and in fact anywhere you like. I went with fairly low expectation – following the recommendation of a friend expecting to enjoy it but not that I’d be absolutely wowed. As you sit in the cinema, but knowing you will be getting a theatrical performance (I know), the cast wander around and greet you J As a musical group – troupe even - they travel round the cinema auditorium  singing and playing numbers which transport you back to 1938. (Later members of the cast use the two middle front row seats when going to the cinema in the show.) Dean Nolan – built like a cuddly bear – requests you to turn off the devices ‘that make noises and light up your faces’ – just before the start of the actual show. And then the film begins in black & white on screen whilst also performing in colour on stage. Genius! And remarkable in its simplicity. As I mentioned a similar idea was used in Chess but in a far more sophisticated and showy way. I am reliably informed the Cornwall-based Kneehigh theatre company came up with this first. And I already love them! Another reason to visit Cornwall again - though they do tour the country. In this production we are presented with the agonisingly heart-wrenching roller-coaster romance of that brief encounter between Laura Jesson (Isabel Pollen) and Alec Harvey (Jim Sturgeon) in the midst of slapstick comedy and movement – dance and the songs/poems of Noel Coward. Everybody is excellent. The stillness – as all around her there is chaos – of Laura/Isobel with her emotional experiences etched on her face – is one of the most moving journeys I have witnessed – superb emotional expression. I was very impressed by Jos Slovick’s singing and playing of various instruments including double-bass and ukulele – in addition to acting and dancing – hugely talented young man! And Beverly Rudd is a phenomenon!! In this – as do many of the other cast – she plays 3 very different characterful characters with high energy, great gusto and such fun! Her main role is Beryl the railway café waitress. Lucy Thackeray – as Myrtle Bagot, the railway café owner with her burberry buns ;) - is also a scream and with Dean Nolan gives us hilarious comedy romance/dance performances. It’s a stark contrast to the main drama but enhances rather than detracts from it, making it all the more poignant. I can’t remember if I have seen the original film – aside from snippets of it – we all know the story though as it is so iconic. For me this brings out the depth of the life messages to greater effect than I recall seeing in the original, but then again maybe that is because I – and the way we humans can creatively express ourselves – have developed. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying the central romance has a very short time-span and they have to go through the pain of physical separation. However the love endures and the experience changes them forever – brings them both out of themselves to – ok cliché here – encourage them to realise their full potentials. What are relationships for after all but to help us grow and learn from each other? Sure at times it may not feel like a positive growth but it is always a learning experience. So though the separation of our ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as Myrtle calls them – is painful – there is hope. And we do also have the hope of the more enduring physical togetherness in relationships of the supporting characters – Myrtle may no longer be ‘no good at love’ and Beryl and usher Stanley (Jos)’s young liaison is charming. Gosh I feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I write this. Yep this old classic has such emotional depth and power. And this production is exceptionally good all round entertainment. The cinema we were in used to be a theatre. Oh and the programme for this production is the nicest ever – packed with lovely pictures and info and only one advert ;)

Brief Encounter – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2018

‘The Bridge’ – shown on BBC TV

(Rated 10/5 ) 

I have to write something about this outstanding series but not quite sure what will come out. I am being careful not to include any spoilers or at the very least any that would detract from the incredible experience of watching this. It is also a part-review focused pretty much solely on the aspect that caught my attention – the personal and psychological stories of the key detective characters. As it’s a TV crime drama series and you can of course get it on DVD and see over and over, it’s not as though - with this one – I need to permanently record the experience in case I forget how it felt like I have felt the need to do with theatre productions. Yet then again I am sure it will feel different the next time I watch. Certainly seeing the final episode ever for the first time I was absolutely on the edge of my seat and couldn’t eat or drink! Totally gripped and frightened for Saga and Henrik – not sure I have ever been made to care so much for two characters. And that’s the incredible story-creation and writing – Hans Rosenfeldt – and superb skill of Sofia Helin and Thure Lindhardt in performance and expression of their character’s emotional development following huge traumas. Saga and Henrik are the most extraordinary couple. Absolute genius in putting these two together with their conflicting issues and struggles both craving love and healing but fighting their own demons, which draw them together while repelling them.

Season1 (and ongoing into 2) puts Saga together with Martin – Kim Bodnia – a family man with imperfections and something on the side – but whose arguably ‘normal’ conventional life-style was a huge contrast to Saga’s single life and autistic-like behaviour patterns. He is Danish and she Swedish and a double murder which a combination of two bodies placed together in the middle of ‘The Bridge’ between Denmark and Sweden starts the crime drama element. Though that aspect of things is excellent in itself, the main interest for me – as I said above - was always the personal lives of the detectives and their interactions. I found the same with ‘Lewis’ and Hathaway in a much more subtle British way of course. Scandi-Noir drama is so gritty – of course initially brought to our attention by ‘The Killing’ with Sarah Lund – Sofie Gabol – and that jumper ;). She was fascinating in herself but with Saga it is as though we step up several gears with a phenomenal conception and her psychological journey is the most interesting I feel I have ever witnessed - in drama anyway. However her story starts relatively gently if you like. And we learn about her idiosyncrasies through Martin picking up on them – in the main humour is involved. Saga’s own special methods work well in detection – asking many questions, being obsessive about solving the puzzle – though her directness upsets many, especially the loved ones of murder victims being told insensitively about their demise. She does not understand small talk – mind you neither do I ;) – and seems to feel no emotion. Sofia’s embodiment of her is a masterclass in acting for sure. As Kim commented you feel the emotion just beneath the surface but using body language and an invisible veil of Sofia’s own facial creation nothing is apparently there. Saga struggles in relationships and especially living with anyone. She has OCD. She assesses right and wrong with head and not heart. She and cuddly Martin develop a lovely friendship yet ultimately when Martin falls foul of the law, it is Saga who has him convicted. (I know a spoiler but for the sake of making this review a little more comprehensible ;))

There is no coming back from that in Season 3 so Martin is gone and a couple more Danish detectives ‘suffer’ Saga and we wonder if she can work with anyone again til along comes Henrik. His story is as strange as hers in a several contrasting ways yet beautifully structured such as to bring us personal roller-coaster drama between them to the absolute max! I thought the first two seasons were excellent and with Martin gone, worried it would dip, but my goodness it stepped up even more gears, and in ways I relish. The traumas, the psychology, the ‘disorders’, the contributing backstories are riveting. Is Saga ‘just’ a classic case of Asperger’s or did her behaviours manifest from deep wounds in childhood? And in asking that question how much of anyone’s apparent ‘disorder’ is nature or nurture? My favourite scene is Saga telling a psychotherapist why she thinks she has PTSD. But I’m leaping ahead to season 4. In season 3 we initially feel Henrik is unsympathetic til his backstory is gradually revealed. This becomes critical to the ongoing interactions and adds a case to be solved. Henrisk and Saga seem to use each other at first but it is mutually beneficial and a relationship – with their issues – which they can both handle. Yet will emotions develop – and if so what then?! Can there be a happy ever after with them saving each other? And what even would that mean? Probably not any conventional contentment but in a way this series beautifully brings into focus unusual ways of being and how people manage that. Far more realistic in my view than the stock relationships and standard ways of them going wrong we get shown time after time in dramas. Ironically I relate to the former better myself and perhaps that is in part why I relish it. I relate to and feel for Saga more than many characters I have observed – is that because I have a disorder myself? – I don’t think so – I think she is super-real in her abnormalities which help all we ‘abnormal’ unconventional types connect with her J After all who is normal anyway?!

Yes The Bridge is excellent crime drama, but for me is it also the most fascinating study in human psychology and ways of relating.

The Bridge – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2018