Minnesota critics swoon over Kneehigh Theatre's BRIEF ENCOUNTER

Show: Brief Encounter
Posted on Feb 18, 2010 at 10:57 a.m. by LeeH

"I don't know how to say this any more plainly:
Do not miss Brief Encounter"
-- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press


TWIN CITIES CRITICS FALL IN LOVE WITH BRIEF ENCOUNTER,
AS LIMITED 7-WEEK RUN AT THE GUTHRIE THEATER OPENS TO RAVE REVIEWS

(Minneapolis/St.Paul) Kneehigh Theatre's production of Noël Coward's iconic love story opened at the Guthrie on February 13 to rave reviews. Brief Encounter - a jaw-dropping fusion of theater, film and song - continues a limited 7-week engagement at the Guthrie, marking the final stop on its wildly-successful three-city U.S. tour. Ingeniously crafted with whimsical humor, dreamy romance and stunning multimedia effects, the production has played to sold-out audiences in London, San Francisco, and New York, and is fast becoming one of the most talked about and sought-after tickets in Minneapolis.

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ...

"It's hard to ask for more in a play. Brief Encounter is what theater is all about-or should be."
-- Tad Simons, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine

"Gloriously theatrical, vastly entertaining, and completely captivating!"
-- Jay Gabler, Twin Cities Daily Planet

"A stunning mix of theatre, film and music that is as imaginative as it is achingly romantic"
-- Andrew Newman, BroadwayWorld

"Cleverly inventive moments, coupled with an exemplary cast, transform Brief Encounter from simple melodrama into a passionate valentine to romantic escapism."
-- Brad Richason, Examiner

"A work with galaxies of sympathy toward its star-crossed lovers, and rather than expressing it as a small-scale tragedy, it dresses things up in song, whimsy, and beauty."
-- Quinton Skinner, City Pages

"A captivating evening of theater!"
-- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

"Innovative and moving"
-- Ed Huyck, MinnPost

"A roller coaster ride of life's most complicated and yet most meaningful emotions: love"
-- Pat Evans, KARE 11 (NBC)

"Fascinating as anything I've ever seen on stage. It's just fantastic so don't miss it."
-- Tim Russell, WCCO Radio


About Brief Encounter
Forbidden passion brews in a 1938 railway station tearoom as a suburban housewife, over a series of stolen afternoons, falls madly in love with a married doctor. The production careens around varying moods of clipped, clenched passion heaving under the middle-class restraint of the duty-bound Alec and Laura, and the wild music-hall exuberance of the ­slap-and-tickle highjinks of two other clandestine couples among the railway station staff. The lives and loves of the three couples are played out in the train station tearoom as a grand entertainment, using the words (some newly set to original music) and familiar songs of Coward to create a breathtaking, funny and tear-inducing show with live musicians on stage, characters jumping in and out of film screens, and a couple in love floating in mid-air.

Directed and adapted by Emma Rice, the production features celebrated British actors and Kneehigh regulars, including Joseph Alessi (Fred/Albert), Dan Canham (Ensemble), Eddie Jay (Musician), Annette McLaughlin (Myrtle), Stuart McLoughlin (Stanley), Adam Pleeth (Musician), Beverly Rudd (Beryl), Milo Twomey (Alec) and Hannah Yelland (Laura).

The creative team for the show Neil Murray (Scenic and Costume Designer), Malcolm Rippeth (Lighting Designer), Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington (Projection and Film Designers), Stu Barker (Original Music), Simon Baker (Sound Designer), Lyndie Wright (Puppetry Designer), Sarah Wright (Puppetry Trainer), Robin Kewell (Underwater Filming), Sam Jones (Casting Director), Simon Harvey (Assistant Director), Paul Crewes (Producer for Kneehigh Theatre) and Michael Mushalla (General Manager for U.S. Tour).

Kneehigh Theatre's production of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter continues through April 3 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage at the Guthrie Theater. Single tickets are priced from $34. Tickets are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE and online at http://www.guthrietheater.org/.

For more information on Brief Encounter at the Guthrie, visit www.guthrietheater.org/whats_happening/shows/2009/brief_encounter.

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