Still Life

What a delightful setting greeted the audience as they entered the centre. The whole place had been transformed to represent a tearoom of the 1930’s - the era of the play. Part of the room had tables covered with lovely cloths and accompanying bone china crockery etc. courtesy of Reminiscence Vintage whilst the rest was the refreshment room of Milford Junction Station complete with serving bar for the setting of the play. To add to the whole ambience we were served with a delicious cream tea by Reminiscence Vintage before the play actually started and during the interval we had more tea and cakes! The one-act play written by Noel Coward was later extended by him into the script for the film Brief Encounter released in 1945. The play centres round the characters of Laura Jesson and Alec Harvey who meet by accident in the refreshment room whilst both waiting for their respective trains. Laura has something in her eye and Alec, who is a doctor, removes it for her and thus begins the intense romance, which takes place over a year, of these two married middle class people. Victoria Murphy as Laura and Mik Horvath as Alec were both excellent. The chemistry between them was tangible and they very effectively portrayed the emotional progression from an innocent first encounter into one that blossomed into deep love along with the shame, guilt and regret they both felt. There are two other romances taking second stage as it were. The first is between station worker Albert Godby played by Michael Fletcher and the owner of the tearooms, Myrtle Bagot, played by Jane Wilton. The mood was definitely lightened by their uncomplicated romance and both were totally convincing in bringing a touch of humour and genuine warmth to the proceedings, loved their little song and dance around the tables. A more subdued and first time romance was delightfully portrayed by Eva Smith as tearoom assistant Beryl Waters and Joe Riley as Stanley. The final parting of Laura and Alec was very poignant but somewhat thwarted by the arrival of Dolly Messiter, a friend of Laura, who was completely oblivious to what was happening continuing to chatter and ramble on, almost to herself. Judy Richter was suitably impressive in this cameo role. Good support in other minor roles came from Roger Whiting, Andrew Barlow, Jeremy Crane, Sophie Mander and customers Pauline Revill and Isobelle Grace Keith. This was an absolutely inspirational idea to perform this particular play in this innovative way and it really made my ‘brief encounter’ on a Sunday afternoon a truly wonderful experience. Congraulations to everyone involved.

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