The film of Brief Encounter is so dear to so many hearts, that any hint of sending it up, or tinkering with the desperately romantic core story would immediately alienate at least half the audience.

Kneehigh Theatre’s treatment wasn’t a pastiche.

The dialogue – most of it – was Coward’s and in the end the aching sadness of the doomed romance was allowed centre stage.

There’s a but, of course. I’m not sure what director and adaptor Emma Rice had in mind, except that she saw the story as one central romance, between middle class housewife Laura and Alec the doctor, and two minor ones between members of the staff of Milford Junction station on the Southern Railway line.

The talented ensemble company was playing jazz and singing popular songs of the Thirties before curtain up and a music hall ambience accompanied them on to the stage.

The intensity of the central romance was diluted by sudden bursts of song from the Milford Junction chorus, albeit with Coward’s own songs. The station staff romances, although undoubtedly all part of the Coward original, were too in-your-face, slapstick and raucous.

The production felt unbalanced.

There were some terrific special effects, with mock British Board of Film Censors certificates flashed up at the beginning of each half; brilliant black and white film sequences into which characters stepped from the stage.

Steam trains powered across the stage on film, waves crashed upon the shore, and of course the Rachmaninov piano concerto was there. It was entertaining and the performances from Hannah Yelland as Laura, Milo Twomey as Alec, and Joseph Alessi in multiple roles were faultless. The supporting cast worked their socks off.

But I found it an uncomfortable experience in which the diverse parts failed to add up to a whole.

Jo Bayne