THE MIDNIGHT BELL
Having over the years seen many of Matthew Bourne’s works, and loved them all, I was most excited to see again The Midnight Bell. His work is always stunning, inventive, innovative and beautifully staged. But with this piece, based on the writings of Patrick Hamilton, there is a haunting beauty and sadness. In his other works there are often moments of humour, welcome moments, well crafted moments, but here there is tragedy, occasionally lightened but most definitely tragi-comic. And it has to be said that the faint titters that came once or twice were no doubt uttered by the less mature members of the audience when confronted by expressions of homosexual intimacy. And that In Brighton! Who would have thought it?
The story is set in Fitzrovia, London, once the centre of the capital’s bohemian community. It became the haunt of artists and writers, poets and playwrights, Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Dylan Thomas… and here they would rub shoulders with city folk, actors, intellectuals and tradesmen and of course women of the night. Hamilton was fascinated by this melee of society and how they would interact, that fracturing of societal norms.
Bourne has taken the title from Hamilton’s trilogy Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, but this is no straightforward staging of those novels but a work inspired by the characters. Set between the two great wars long time collaborator designer Lez Brotherston once again creates a world of shifting spaces, atmospheres and tangible realities, a brooding and dimly lit underworld, a world of secrets and trysts and one lit with such unerring reserve and sensitivity by Paule Constable. Few could employ a mirror ball without it becoming a cliche, but they do. This is a world of flickering gas light and drifting fog, seedy hotels and rooming houses, a no-man’s-land between polite society and a criminal underworld.
Into this world step the characters, a waiter, a young prostitute, a spinster, a cad, a barmaid, an out of work actress, a chorus boy, a romantic and both a regular and a new customer, all in and around The Midnight Bell. And here they play out their stories, obsession, forbidden love, desperation, loneliness, exploitation and fear. It’s a masterpiece of story telling delivered by an exceptional company of performers, dancers all of course but actors of the highest calibre too.
Terry Davies has created a wonderful score, it has the moody atmosphere of a period thriller interspersed with period songs appropriately chosen for their telling lyrics and lip-synced with precision by the cast with no attention to appropriate gender, a clever conceit that adds to the whole.
It would be wrong to single out any one member of the cast as there is not a weak performance in this work so instead I will list them all.
BOB, a waiter Andy Monaghan
JENNY MAPLE, a young prostitute Ashley Shaw
MISS. ROACH, a lonely spinster Michela Meazza
ERNEST RALPH GORSE, a cad Glenn Graham
ELLA, a barmaid Hannah Kremer
MR. ECCLES, a regular customer Reece Causton
GEORGE HARVEY BONE, a tortured romantic Danny Reubens
NETTA LONGDON, an out-of-work actress Cordelia Braithwaite
FRANK, a new customer Edwin Ray
ALBERT, a West-End Chorus Boy Liam Mower
Sir Matthew Bourne’s company New Adventures never fails to deliver beautiful work for the stage, it goes beyond dance, it is exquisite and timeless theatre, lucid storytelling and joyously entertaining.
Andrew Kay 30 July
Theatre Royal Brighton
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