Still Life

Still Life is a short play written by Noel Coward and was the basis for the film, Brief Encounter. It tells of a chance meeting in the refreshment room of suburban railway station, a subsequent love affair and the eventual parting of a married woman, Laura, and a married physician, Alec. The sadness of their serious and secretive affair is contrasted throughout the play with the uncomplicated relationship of Myrtle and Albert. 

The Whitworth is a magnificent Victorian property which offers many various rooms for a variety of uses. The large room that the play was in is quite splendiferous with elaborate wooden panelling around the walls and a very high magnificent ceiling. There is no stage as such but a raised dais was in place in front of wonderful wooden wall panel. The set was the interior of the Refreshment Room with tables and chairs, a counter, various stands housing cakes and other tearoom items.There were also two tables and chairs on the floor together with a coat and hat stand.

The scenes are set over a period of about a year and this was delivered by the use of ‘blackouts’ and super costume changes, especially by Laura. Alec and Laura’s initial meeting took place because Laura had something in her eye and Alec introduces himself as a Doctor and removes it, after which she goes off to catch her train. We encounter them, in the tearoom, at various times through this whole period when at one such meeting Laura questions the advisability of them meeting so often considering their marriages and other responsibilities. Another was when they admit they love each other but don’t want to upset their marriages but will meet secretly and later when they both agree that their affair must stop. Alec goes on to tell her that he has been offered a medical post in South Africa but won’t take it if she asks him not to. Their final encounter is when Alec is leaving to take up the post in Africa and Laura has come to see him off. 

Laura was superbly played by Alicia Hill. She initially totally captured the somewhat nervous and fragile nature of Laura whilst conveying the yearnings and temptations of her respectable and fairly dull life by sharing anecdotes of her childhood and her hopes and dreams to escape now and again. She definitely blossoms during this time and quite convincingly gets upset when she realises that the relationship must end. Their last encounter is just so movingly heartrending as Laura asks “Do you think we shall ever see each other again?”. After an interruption from Dolly, Alec leaves and just touches her shoulder on his way out, perhaps not the final farewell they were hoping for but this small gesture was quite emotionally charged. Laura just stares into space as she listens for the train to leave then stands up and rushes out. She very soon returns, sits down and is obviously so distraught as she listens to the train as it takes Alec away. Alec was charming, quite sophisticated, cool, calm and bursting with confidence. All of these traits were wonderfully portrayed by Phil McGough, he was every inch a middle-class Doctor. At one point he expressed his love for Laura in quite a matter of fact way showing little or no emotion that really made you wonder how sincere he was or if in fact he was just showing self control and restraint. Whatever, they were a great pairing and really worked so well together. As a complete contrast the relationship between Myrtle and Albert definitely added some light relief thus showing a definite difference between the respectability and secrecy of Laura and Alec’s middle class relationship and that between the working classes. Sheila Sly excelled as Myrtle, the Tearoom Manageress. She was lively, full of life, had a very friendly manner but could be quite bossy and stood no nonsense especially evident when two soldiers thought they could manipulate her into selling them alcohol outside of licensing hours. She tries her best to be ‘off-putting’ at times towards Albert’s affectionate and flirtacious mannerisms but secretly loves them. Jim Lack was great as Albert, the Ticket Inspector. His natural displays of affection for Myrtle were so well delivered as was his little song and dance routine with a mop. Tess Edmonds was perfect in the role of Beryl, Myrtle’s assistant. She constantly busied herself fetching and carrying, wiping down tables and cleaning the floor. Preventing Laura and Alec from a possible passionate farewell was the sudden intrusion of Dolly, a friend of Laura. Rachel Wilson was first-class as Dolly, a well meaning, but totally self-centred person. She took over the situation by sitting between Laura and Alec totally oblivious to what was going on, just chatting away.  Good support came from Danny Washington as Stanley, Platform Staff, from the two soldiers Bill, played by Will Hopkins, and Johnnie, played by James Brown and from the brief appearance of Mildred played by Philomena Washington. 

The set along along with excellent props, a good lighting plot, excellent musical interludes and the absolutely stunning period costumes all came together to produce a most entertaining, thought provoking and at times, a very moving production. Congratulations to Grace Day, on her Directing Debut, to all the Back Stage Crew, to everyone else involved and especially to the super cast. Also my thanks, as always, to Lindsay for her very warm welcome.

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