Alan Long was blown away by this stage adaptation of EM Forster's famous novel portraying the Edwardian era of England. 5 STARS
The play begins as a social comedy about the English abroad, in Florence about 1900. The city and its inhabitants are evoked by clever use of the small cast to create the illusion of throng and crowding. The brilliantly humorous dialogue brings out the snobbish attitudes of the visitors towards each other, towards tourists (tourism being seen as a less worthy form of appreciation), and towards their Italian hosts. Admiration of classical Italian culture alternates with disdain for the Italian people who serve and surround them.
The individuality and depth of the characters is rapidly and entertainingly developed.
Lucy Honeychurch, young, well-born and eligible, is on holiday, chaperoned by her older cousin Charlotte, a poor relation who is ostentatiously and provokingly self-deprecating and self-sacrificing.
The Emersons, a father and his son George unnerve their compatriots by being from a different and lower social class and by always saying exactly what they mean. The Reverend Mr Beebe, a charming and sophisticated churchman from Lucy’s neighbourhood in Surrey, comments on the difficulty of dealing with a man, Mr Emerson Snr, who makes a habit of speaking the truth.
In a couple of dramatic scenes, a relationship develops between Lucy and George and is brought to a crisis and, apparently, to an abrupt end, by his unsuitability and the intolerably forward act of spontaneously kissing her.
©Nobby Clark ©Nobby Clarknobby@nobbyclark.co.uk
Felicity Kendal/Charlotte Bartlett Lauren Coe/Lucy Honeychurch
The second act opens in the Honeychurch’s comfortable and spacious Surrey home, Windy Corner, and is given fresh comic impetus by the introduction of new characters: Lucy’s fun-loving and bouncy brother, Freddy, and Cecil Vyse, her suitor and in due course fiancée. The Emersons reappear as tenants of a nearby cottage and romantic possibilities are revived.
The story and the characters will be well known to many if not most of the audience from the 1908 novel by EM Forster or the 1985 Merchant/Ivory film starring Maggie Smith and Helena Bonham-Carter. But the play provides more social context – through references to poverty, democracy, and the need for women to be free to think for themselves and to have lives independent of men. It also deepens the complexity of the characters, and more fully realises their comic potential, particularly in the second act.
Cecil Vyse, played by Charlie Anson, is a magnetic stage presence and a brilliantly funny creation – elegant, statuesque flinching from contact with reality and a perfect contrast to George who demands truth, sincerity and closeness. Felicity Kendal is a sweeter, more vulnerable cousin Charlotte than was Maggie Smith in the film. As the best known and celebrated member of the cast, it is she who is headlined, but all of the main players give excellent performances in a wonderful and in the end very moving entertainment.
A Room With a View is showing at the Yvonne from November 1-5. For tickets visit yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
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