Still Life,
By Noel Coward
Theatre Royal, London, until September 12
Cast: Alasdair Craig, Rachel Pickup, Elizabeth Elvin, Antony Jardine, Seren Sandham-Davies
Directed by Tam Williams
Producer: Bob and Co. & Wild Pursuit Theatre
Originally staged in the Waterwheel Bar at The Mill at Sonning Theatre in Berkshire.
Running time: one hour
One of the most romantic films ever made “Brief Encounter” was based on the 1936 play “Still Life” by Noel Coward, who, as a homosexual long before it was legal, knew all about the intense agony of forbidden love.
In an updated version of Shakespeare’s love-as-disease imagery, Coward makes Alec Harvey, the doctor at the centre of his affair, a specialist in preventative medicine, with the implication he should work to suppress illicit love as a moral aberration, especially for the buttoned-up middle classes of the 1930s and 1940s.
It’s a crippling dilemma for two “nice”, responsible people who are very married, but not to each other. Harvey (Alasdair Craig) pleads powerfully for having the strength to stop being nice and to confront what convention forbids, while Rachel Pickup as the demure Laura is racked with guilt for “letting something happen that should not happen”.
In David Lean’s film, Laura’s and Alec’s story is emotionally dominant.
Directed by Tam Williams, this artfully curtailed version, adapted for the Theatre Royal’s Grand Saloon bar, gives almost equal emphasis to the very lively love interests bubbling away, set to live music, among the station staff. The democratic approach helps to make the action feel fresh and resonant for all the period clothing, dated vocabulary and emphatic class distinctions. Across the divides, everyone has their inner child as well as their adult passions.
Antony Jardine, doubling as station guard and refreshments man, pursues the would-be refined Myrtle Baggot (Elizabeth Elvin) and the youthfully giggling Beryl, played by Seren Sandham-Davies. The outcome for them is happier than for the doomed protagonists, but they too are fraught with unwelcome interruptions and moments of darkness and menace.
Sandham-Davies also doubles to portray a young soldier, demanding a shot of spirits out of hours. The tension defuses into laughter as Myrtle consoles herself with the brandy she refused to serve.
As we peer round the bar, past the teapots and Bath Buns, we have the privileged perspective of accidental onlookers. We also feast on an afternoon tea far superior to the fare of Coward’s Milton Junction tearoom.
Barbara Lewis © 2026.
Still Life,
By Noel Coward
Theatre Royal, London, until September 12
Cast: Alasdair Craig, Rachel Pickup, Elizabeth Elvin, Antony Jardine, Seren Sandham-Davies
Directed by Tam Williams
Producer: Bob and Co. & Wild Pursuit Theatre
Originally staged in the Waterwheel Bar at The Mill at Sonning Theatre in Berkshire.
Running time: one hour
One of the most romantic films ever made “Brief Encounter” was based on the 1936 play “Still Life” by Noel Coward, who, as a homosexual long before it was legal, knew all about the intense agony of forbidden love.
In an updated version of Shakespeare’s love-as-disease imagery, Coward makes Alec Harvey, the doctor at the centre of his affair, a specialist in preventative medicine, with the implication he should work to suppress illicit love as a moral aberration, especially for the buttoned-up middle classes of the 1930s and 1940s.
It’s a crippling dilemma for two “nice”, responsible people who are very married, but not to each other. Harvey (Alasdair Craig) pleads powerfully for having the strength to stop being nice and to confront what convention forbids, while Rachel Pickup as the demure Laura is racked with guilt for “letting something happen that should not happen”.
In David Lean’s film, Laura’s and Alec’s story is emotionally dominant.
Directed by Tam Williams, this artfully curtailed version, adapted for the Theatre Royal’s Grand Saloon bar, gives almost equal emphasis to the very lively love interests bubbling away, set to live music, among the station staff. The democratic approach helps to make the action feel fresh and resonant for all the period clothing, dated vocabulary and emphatic class distinctions. Across the divides, everyone has their inner child as well as their adult passions.
Antony Jardine, doubling as station guard and refreshments man, pursues the would-be refined Myrtle Baggot (Elizabeth Elvin) and the youthfully giggling Beryl, played by Seren Sandham-Davies. The outcome for them is happier than for the doomed protagonists, but they too are fraught with unwelcome interruptions and moments of darkness and menace.
Sandham-Davies also doubles to portray a young soldier, demanding a shot of spirits out of hours. The tension defuses into laughter as Myrtle consoles herself with the brandy she refused to serve.
As we peer round the bar, past the teapots and Bath Buns, we have the privileged perspective of accidental onlookers. We also feast on an afternoon tea far superior to the fare of Coward’s Milton Junction tearoom.
Barbara Lewis © 2026.
By Stephen McGrath • added recently on London Grip, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre