For the very first time in my experience, a play was stopped for a technical problem. It was after half an hour that a thunderstorm knocked out some of the electrics. A ten minute wait and we were back. This was the most exciting part of the evening.
Award winning playwright Bryony Lavery has tried to rush through a novel that was far more attuned to the leisurely pace of the brilliant 1980's TV series. I found most of the production to be very disjointed as we race from scene to scene. I didn't mind the ultra modern set, but it's use only made the pace even more frantic.
Jeremy Irons narrated the TV series unseen, but here Brian Ferguson's lightweight and light voiced Charles Ryder keeps turning to the audience to keep us up to speed. This just did not work. A voice from the wings, or another actor writing his memoirs in a corner would have been far preferable.
Christopher Simpson is good as Sebastian Flyte but becomes more and more a peripheral character as the play progresses.
The standout performance are the "cameo appearances of Shuna Snow as, variously, the hopelessly horsey Bridey, the Canadian vulgarian Rex, and the dissipated German soldier Kurt, who suffers, not entirely unlike this adaptation, by shooting himself in the foot". There is definitely a play to be made from this classic novel, but this wasn't it.
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