Viva Brighton Issue #65 July 2018

THEATRE
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The Meeting
Silence is Golden
This part of the world
is very well served for
theatres. We’re all
aware of the Victorian
splendour of the
Theatre Royal, the
fabulous venues in
and around Pavilion
Gardens, to say nothing
of the great fringe
theatres that make
Brighton second only
to London when it
comes to trying out new shows. But Brightonians
also know that theatre can encompass the glitz
and glam of Glyndebourne and the very special
ambience that is Chichester Festival Theatre.
Charlotte Jones, a local playwright, showcases
a new production there this month. She has
quite a track record. Her multi-award-winning
play Humble Boy transferred to the West End
and Broadway, and she’s also had plays on at the
Almeida and the Donmar. Her TV series The
Halcyon featured a five-star hotel in London
during World War II, and she’s got several more
TV and film projects in the pipeline.
I met her in the bar of the Open House on the
kind of summer’s day Shakespeare might have
known, to talk about The Meeting. She surprises
me by telling me that it’s set in a Quaker community.
I make a joke about there not being a lot of
opportunities for dialogue, but Charlotte tells me
that “it came from my own experience of going
to the Lewes Meeting… The thing about Quaker
Meetings is you sit in silence and then see if you
are moved by the Spirit to speak… And I thought
that that was inherently theatrical.”
I probe her on this. “A dramatic thing could happen
at any moment,”
she tells me. Although
The Meeting is set in
definite place and time
– Sussex, 1805 – she’s
not specific about this
in the stage directions.
The setting is “a
small community, just
outside the town, and a
stranger comes to this
community. It’s about
how difficult it is to
live as a peaceful community, and what we do as a
society to people who are different.”
She points out the resonances between a community
trying to live out the ideal of Friendship,
and our very vexed present. “It’s a thriller about
what we do with strangers and how difficult it is
to live a truly peaceful life… At the heart of this
community are a deaf woman and her daughter.”
Rachel, the daughter, interprets for her mother,
and the theme of dramatic silence is given added
depth through the portrayal of this relationship.
Charlotte tells me about Jean St Clair, who plays
a major role in The Meeting, herself an award-winning
actor and writer who is profoundly deaf.
The bustle of a lunchtime pub recedes as I take
my leave of Charlotte and head back to write up
our interview. I check out the press release and
a line from the show haunts me. ‘Teach me the
language of your hands.’ And I think then that
our present clamour could do with the quiet
thoughtfulness and inherent theatricality of
Charlotte Jones.
John O’Donoghue
Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 13th July – 11th
August
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