Brief Encounter
BRIEF ENCOUNTER
by Noel Coward
& adapted for the stage by Emma Rice
Directed by Chris Weber & Gina Kelly
Performed at the Stiftstheater Augustinum
From 14 – 18 November, 2017
Brief Encounter is, after the major comedies, the one work of Coward that almost everybody knows and has probably seen, and the screenplay is based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life.
This iconic 1945 British romantic drama film, directed by David Lean, about British suburban life on the eve of World War 2, sees Laura, a married woman with children, whose conventional life becomes increasingly complicated because of a chance meeting at a railway station with a stranger, Alec. They fall in love, bringing about unexpected consequences. The film starred Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard with a soundtrack prominently featuring the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The text for this production was adapted for the stage by Emma Rice and is a mixture of the film and the stage play, with additional musical elements.The original 2008 Kneehigh Theatre production, also directed by Emma Rice and produced by David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers, toured the UK before opening in February 2008 at the Haymarket Cinema in London.