SIR RICHARD BRANSON reaches for the skies - Mayfair Times

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theatre
LAURA (NAOMI FREDERICK) AND
ALEC (TRISTAN STURROCK)
PHOTO: ALISTAIR MUIR
“When you go to the cinema, people feel they can relax,
have something to eat, be more informal. There’s a sense of
coming for a good night out, whereas a lot of people feel
going to the theatre has to be worthy.
“By putting a theatre show on in a cinema and having
things like a live band on stage you’re immediately telling
people: it’s OK to have fun here.”
And to join in — a singalong to Alice is at it Again, a
wickedly un-PC song about an errant daughter, takes place
in the first act, while during the interval characters from the
train station cafe, where much of the action takes place,
wander into the auditorium handing out sandwiches.
“It’s all part of breaking down the boundaries between the
actors and audience,” says Rice. “I believe you only really
move people when they feel a part of something, not just
witness it.”
In her version, the minor characters are given a more
prominent role, with cheeky love affairs and slapstick
shenanigans going on in the cafe in stark contrast to the
repressed middle class manners and clipped accents of the
main characters.
Rice believes that far from detracting from the poignancy
of the central story the comedic subplots add to the
audience’s experience of it.
“I always believe that when people are laughing, they’re
more likely to cry. You’re opening up all sorts of chambers of
the human heart. That’s why people often go to funerals and
end up laughing.
“What doing this show has shown me is the breadth of
Noel Coward’s work. To be able to write this beautiful love
story and yet also write something like Alice is at it Again —
what a man!”
The skill of the performers who make up the Kneehigh
ensemble is also impressive. Not only are they required to act, but to sing, dance, play musical
instruments and swing from chandeliers, too.
“The actors I use are storytellers and can use different forms,” says Rice. “They’re so amazing.
There aren’t that many actors around who are so multi-talented, so I tend to use a core team of
people.”
They must also be able to embrace Kneehigh’s unusual approach to theatre-making, which
involves putting the script down and devising a show largely through improvisation.
“I’ve never done a read-through at the beginning of rehearsal process,” says Rice. “That
would just be closing off your options. It’s all about saying, ‘What if?’ That’s when you get the
brilliant surprises.”
It’s a process that seems to work: Rice has won awards for her previous productions,
including The Red Shoes and The Bacchae.
Her next project is a production of Don Giovanni for the Royal Shakespeare Company, which
she is setting in Seventies Britain. Like Kneehigh’s Cymbeline in 2006 — which featured a
supporting cast of toy soldiers — it’s likely to be one that ruffles the purists’ feathers but delights
audiences.
“I feel strongly that theatre should be contemporary,” says Rice. “I want to make British
theatre for 2008. I don’t want to quote, I want to reinvent.”
Brief Encounter is at The Cinema Haymarket until October 19
“By putting a theatre
show on in a cinema
and having things like
a live band on stage
you’re immediately
telling people: it’s OK
to have fun here.”