"I'm so glad you're feeling better". Stevens ignores his father's approaching death to attend to his duties with the guests of his employer Lord Darlington. This is so typical of the repressed butler who is bound by his conviction of what a good butler should be. Stephen Boxer is so good in the role that, for me, he even eclipses that played by Anthony Hopkins in the film version.
Equally wonderful is Niamh Cusack as Miss Kenton, her feelings for Stevens are ultimately subdued by his apparent coldness towards her. Barney Morris, in his adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel, has perfectly captured the nature of a pre WW2 household. There is also the underlying danger of the rise of fascism as Darlington tries to use his position, with that of others like him, to seek appeasement with Germany. After all, their conference is in his house.
The director, Christopher Haydon has cleverly steered away from the structure of the movie by playing pre war and post war scenes simultaneously on the stage. So one minute Stevens is talking to people he meets on that famous journey to the West Country to see Miss Kenton (now Mrs Benn) decades later and being interrupted by Miss Kenton and others in the household in the past. This theatrical device works very well to keep up the pace. I'm not sure the gentleman next to me got that at all.
There are other aspects to the production that are also superb. The set by Lily Arnold is one, but I liked the combination of the music between scenes (echoes of Downton Abbey) with the movement of the ensemble (collecting and distributing props) which resembles the business of the household servants. For once, a mention for the movement director, Lucy Cullingford.
And then the final extended scene is perfection. No wonder there was not a seat to be found in the theatre on a Tuesday evening.
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