Details announced for West End run of Emma Rice’s Brief Encounter
Full details have been announced for the West End run of Kneehigh's Brief Encounter, adapted and directed by outgoing Shakespeare's Globe artistic director Emma Rice.
Noel Coward's story is about a chance meeting in a café at a train station between Laura, a married woman with children, and stranger Alec, after they are brought together when Laura gets a piece of grit in her eye.
Brief Encounter will run live on stage at the Empire Cinema in Haymarket from 2nd March to 2nd September 2018, with an official opening on 11th March. This follows shorter runs in Birmingham and Salford.
Jim Sturgeon and Isabel Pollen will lead the cast as Alec and Laura, and will be joined by Lucy Thackeray as Myrtle, Beverly Rudd as Beryl, Jos Slovick as Stanley and Dean Nolan as Fred/Albert, with Katrina Kleve and Peter Dukes.
Commenting on the production, Rice said: "I've always loved getting lost in the dark, and the cinema is one of the best places to do it. However, a film doesn't change. It carries on whether you are there or not; performances are captured forever, never altering.
"My production of Brief Encounter combines the romance of cinema with all that live theatre can offer; magic, passion, surprise, suggestion and naughtiness. I carry this show in my heart and couldn't be more excited to return to this heart-pounding production and bring it back to its rightful home at the Empire Cinema."
The show has designs by Neil Murray, lighting by Malcom Rippeth, music from Stu Barker, sound design by Simon Baker and projections from Gemma Carrington and Jon Driscoll.
Emma Rice's Brief Encounter was first produced at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and ran in the West End in 2008, also at the Haymarket Cinema, before transferring to New York.
Brief Encounter is at the Haymarket Cinema from 2nd March to 2nd September 2018, with an official opening on 11th March.
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