Life in a Small-Scale Theatre Company - Brief Encounters

We have just had a review on the Theatre Wales website: 

Brief Encounters

Lighthouse Theatre Company , Pontardawe Arts Centre , September-14-15
Brief Encounters by Lighthouse Theatre Company
For a number of years now the Swansea-based Lighthouse Theatre Company have established themselves as a warm and friendly presence on the South Wales theatre circuit. Whether guiding you gently through Cwmdonkin Park to immerse you in exquisitely realised memories from the life of Dylan Thomas or recreating the city’s Three Nights’ Blitz in venues little bigger than your own living room, Lighthouse have always displayed a remarkable flexibility of staging and a genuine consideration for the comfort of their audiences – on occasion they’ve even been known to make you a cup of tea in the interval. But the geographical reach of this small-scale touring unit – affectionately thought of by some as a pocket-sized ‘National Theatre Mumbles’ – has also extended far beyond the shores of Swansea Bay. Indeed, their signature piece Brief Encounters, comprising two short plays by Noël Coward (of which one was the basis of a post-war British cinematic masterpiece), has been seen literally around the world since it was first performed in 2011.

And the sheer quality of this production continues to evolve. For its latest incarnation Lighthouse have teamed up with visionary director Maxine Evans, fresh from her triumphant staging of new play Revlon Girls in London’s West End, to imbue this thematically mirrored pair of dramas with remarkable new-found integrity and dispel any lingering perception of Coward as a somewhat superficial writer. She has mined the material’s subtext with Pinteresque precision, her treatment layered, stylish and meticulous, so that every pause and gesture that the actors make is resonant with nuanced motivation. Sonia Beck and Adrian Metcalfe skilfully negotiate an astonishingly textured emotional terrain portraying two very different couples teetering on the brink of romantic involvement whilst, presiding over her station-café domain, the sublimely comic Llinos Daniel by turn soothes and compounds their turmoil with supplies of tea, gossip and freshly made buns. The action is completed by a live Rachmaninov underscore performed beautifully on piano by Joshua Stokes. 

A packed first-night house at Pontardawe Arts Centre – itself the most friendly of venues – embraced this classy, funny and at times deeply moving reworking with waves of heartfelt enthusiasm. No doubt the reach of the Lighthouse beam will extend still further in time, but tonight it also shone a darn sight brighter. 

Brief Encounters tours to venues throughout Wales until the end of September before moving on to Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. Full details are available from the company’s website, http://www.lighthouse-theatre.co.uk. ;

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