Brief Encounter

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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Description

Nol Cowards Brief Encounter is remembered as one of the most haunting love stories on screen ever. Drawing on the characteristic wit and musicality of Kneehigh, Emma Rice, former Joint Artistic Director of the Company, has adapted Cowards classic 1945 screenplay, and the one-act play Still Life on which it was based, into a richly theatrical, imaginative and vibrant piece of theatre. From an original idea by David Pugh & Dafydd Rogers, Kneehighs production received its world premiere in 2008. This edition is published to coincide with the productions run live at the Empire Cinema in Londons West End for 2018, co-produced by Steve and Jenny Wiener and The Old Vic. With an updated foreword by Emma Rice. Surely the most enchanting work of stagecraft ever inspired by a movie. Ben Brantley, The New York Times Moving, funny, gripping and even at its most inventive, true to the original and its all-English heart The Times

Reviews

A first-class return to romance -- Charles Spencer * Telegraph *
A delicate, whimsical creation. Exquisite -- Ben Brantley * New York Times *
Ms Rice and her wonderful company have made it possible to embrace Brief Encounter once more with feeling... -- Ben Brantley * New York Times *

Author Bio

Nol Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1933), Design for Living (1933) and Blithe Spirit (1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and In Which We Serve (1942). In the fifties he began a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), two volumes of autobiography and four volumes of short stories: To Step Aside (1939), Star Quality (1951), Pretty Polly Barlow (1964) and Bon Voyage (1967). He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica. Emma Rice is Artistic Director of acclaimed theatre company Kneehigh.