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REVIEW: Room with a View@Theatre Royal

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Room with a View

Theatre Royal

Adapted from the novel by E.M.Forster by Simon Reade

Directed by Adrian Noble

It’s not often you get to mention firm male butts, swift flashed cocks and Felicity Kendal in the same sentence, not even with the breadth of social life that your reviewer enjoys, it’s even rarer to see naked men and the divinely poised Ms Kendal on a stage together but last night at the Theatre Royal this rare and rather delightful experience was part of this perfectly pitched adaption of E.M. Fosters Room with a View. It brought squeals of delight from the audience.

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With its cast of vivid characters, this elegant comedy written in 1908 is widely recognised as one of the finest novels of the twentieth century and lead to the Merchant Ivory film adaptation.

English rose Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her prim spinster cousin Charlotte Bartlett (Kendal) as chaperone. Charlotte is quick to step in when Lucy makes the mistake of fraternising with the lower class George at their Florentine pension. Back home at the family’s Surrey estate Lucy becomes engaged to the eminently suitable (but priggish and pretentious) Cecil. Charlotte has sworn Lucy to secrecy over the kiss with George, but will Lucy be able to repress her feelings when she discovers that George has taken a house in the village?

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Ms Kendal heads a perfect cast; all the actors fit the roles and give convincing and engaging performances. This is a play about change and loss, about pretension and honestly, about expectation and entitlement and ultimately about how spontaneous actions in a rigid world of set social codes can shatter and explode into life changing potential. Adrian Noble’s production is a lovely thing to watch, lighting and set conspiring to suggest transformative experiences with art and light that is central to the themes of the novel, but also its closed, uniform restrictions boundaries like the repression of the Edwardian era which lead to folk travelling to escape.

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It’s so nice to see something on stage that has a happy ending for most of the characters concerned and even better when it’s full of humour and grace. The set was a little wonky on occasion which should have been remedied sooner and sound cues were missed,one involving the thumping of a piano (mysteriously silent)  which lead to a lovely piece of quick thinking improv and warm laughter.  This adaption juxtaposes faded spinster and young ingénue and whereas the book focuses on the growing emotional maturity of Lucy the play’s heavy contrasting of the  missed opportunities of Charlotte and her apparent conservative hesitation with the potential of Lucy’s brave grasping of chance. It changes the nature of the story, at least for anyone who has read the book but there’s no doubt it leads to a prime part for Ms Kendal to shine at and to a slightly different reading of the narrative and indeed the title itself. It’s one I rather liked. Reade has adapted this into a solid two hander of a play, has scooped out the political heart, but kept some of the more metaphorical ideas of social propriety, rooms and views/outlooks, it makes a different beast to the book and indeed film, but still gives it grace and a gentle learnedness that makes for an enjoyable evening.

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The full supporting case are superb but it’s Kendal’s night and my companion and I wandered out into the crisp autumn air conversing in genteel tones on Edwardian entitlement and travelling, the Good life and the unexpected sight of a superb firm athletic butt alongside Felicity Kendal.  One ought to have swooned I suppose…

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Until October 15

Theatre Royal

Brighton

 

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