"I'm Sure I've No Idea to What You're Referring"

HGO Dramaturg Colin Ure charts the journey of Brief Encounter from play to screen to opera stage.

Set design by Bunny Christie. Original photograph of the 1945 film Brief Encounter courtesy of ITV / Granada International.

Brief Encounter’s simple, straightforward, romantic story about a couple of married people who meet by chance in a railway station’s refreshment room, and over a short period of time fall in love with each other, had its origin in a play called Still Life written by Noël Coward in 1936. Still Life was one of a series of short plays and sketches called Tonight at 8.30, created specifically for the actress Gertrude Lawrence.

Brief Encounter was released in Britain in 1945 and in the United States the following year, starring the relatively unknown Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. The film would be the fourth and final collaboration between Coward and the young David Lean. In fact, Lean’s directorial career was launched in the early 1940’s adapting several of Coward’s stage plays for the silver screen: In Which We Serve in 1942, This Happy Breed in 1944, and Blythe Spirit in 1945. Lean’s illustrious career in cinema would continue until 1984 leaving a legacy of classic films including The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Ryan’s Daughter, and A Passage to India.

What is it about Brief Encounter that has entranced so many people over the decades? How has it developed from a short play, to a romantic movie, and now into a world premiere opera?

Still Life depicts the relationship and heartbreaking separation of the two principal protaganists Laura Jesson and Alec Harvey in purely theatrical terms. Its five episodic scenes that span about a year in time all take place in the refreshment room of Milford Junction Station. Moments of respite from Laura and Alec’s unfolding drama are created through the introduction of other characters: Myrtle Bagot, who runs the refreshment room; Beryl her young assistant; Albert Godby, a ticket inspector; Stanley, a young station worker; two soldiers, and Dolly Messiter, one of Laura’s gossiping acquaintances.

The inclusion in the play of the station staff creates an all- important subplot, almost Shakespearean in its design. Myrtle and Albert?—?mature, worldly and somewhat cynical?—?are also embarking upon a relationship with each other. However, it is clear that their relationship, should it develop, will not be affected by the anguish and guilt eating away at the very heart of Laura and Alec’s predicament. A clever contrast to these relationships is the third relationship in the play between the two younger characters, Beryl and Stanley, a serious relationship but nevertheless one which is bursting with the excitement and recklessness of youth and first love.

Scenes with the station staff, including a short scene where two soldiers make fun of Myrtle, provide moments of light relief away from the developing gloom of Laura and Alec’s situation. Finally, at the moment when Laura and Alec must part from each other forever, they are interrupted by the arrival of the gossiping Dolly Messiter, her banal chatter inadvertently destroying Laura and Alec’s last precious minutes together. Interestingly we learn little of Alec Harvey’s character. Also, Laura and Alec’s spouses, Fred and Madeleine, the two people they are being unfaithful to, are only mentioned but never appear in the play.

Coward used much of the play’s dialogue for his adaptation of Still Life into the screenplay Brief Encounter in 1945. However the world of theater was now replaced by a more realistic and natural world created specifically for the movie by filming it in a series of outside locations. The single stage set of the refreshment room was now replaced by an actual station, Carnforth Station in the north of England, complete with refreshment room, platforms, and real steam trains. Location shots also included the small market town of Milford in which much of the action takes place, the lake in the park where Laura and Alec go boating, the cinema, the Kardomah café, Steven Lynn’s apartment building, and the old bridge in the countryside where Laura and Alec spend a couple of afternoons.

The film’s most radical departure from the stage play was David Lean’s decision to shoot the scenes out of continuity: the movie more or less beginning at the end and being told by Laura in flashback as a confession. Lean’s cinematic genius juxtaposes sections of the movie where Laura’s voice relays the story as we see it with sections when the camera focuses for long periods of time on her face, giving the British actress Celia Johnson every opportunity to depict Laura’s changing emotions through the use of her hypnotic, luminous eyes. Indeed throughout the movie Johnson relates Laura’s confession with great intelligence and sensitivity using all the vocal colors and inflections of her mellifluous voice.

Lean directs Trevor Howard in much the same way. Lingering camera shots allow Howard time to show us what Alec is feeling, although like in “the play”, Coward does not flesh out Alec’s character as much as Laura’s, leaving us in some doubt about Alec’s real motivation for the relationship, and his innermost feelings.

It was decided that Laura’s husband Fred should appear in the movie although his character is little more than a cipher. Fred, who comes across as being slightly comical, spends his time working out crossword puzzles at home, and if he suspects that Laura is having an affair, then he never questions her. It is only at the very end of the movie when Fred alludes to Laura having had a “bad dream” that he makes any reference to Laura’s unhappiness or his relief and gratitude at her return to him, the epitome of British middle-class stoicism.

Brief Encounter is a movie created entirely by men about a middle-class, married woman going through a crisis in her life. It is entirely due to Coward’s understanding of human nature that the character of Laura is believable. She exists in a man’s world, her character dominated and regulated in her mind by men who represent important positions in society. After one of her meetings with Alec, a churchman’s innocent gaze makes her feel guilty. On learning of her son’s accident she feels dreadful and punished. Following her aborted sexual tryst with Alec in Steven Lynn’s apartment, she feels like a prostitute, and later in the same scene when a well-meaning policeman asks kindly after her health, she feels like a criminal.

Laura also feels dominated by the opinions of Alec and Fred, the two men in her life. She is made to feel dull and ordinary when told quite emphatically by Alec that she is “far too sensible” to entertain musical aspirations. In the station refreshment room Alec insists that she eat a pastry even though she has already refused it. In her mind she is conscious of Fred’s disapproval when she finds herself smoking in the street, and on the few occasions she disagrees with him, his offhand remark “have it your own way” is deeply condescending.

In Brief Encounter Laura and Alec’s affair spans seven consecutive Thursdays, a change from Coward’s original play. Time, and the passage of time, is the work’s central theme and there are references to it throughout the movie. Laura’s dull, repetitive life is passing her by, and by embarking on her affair with Alec she hopes to stop time by encapsulating it. Other examples include the opening scene where we see Albert Godby check the time of the passing express train by looking at his pocket watch. The time on the station clock is often in evidence, and Laura buys Fred a clock for his birthday.

The characters frequently allude to time as well. “Time and tide wait for no man,” councils Myrtle Bagot. Realizing that they must part, Laura’s hope that they still have some time left is countered by Alec’s remark “There is no more time.” Even Fred’s crossword puzzle makes reference to it “The passing of time, two words, four and four...tick tock.”

The ability to show real trains in the movie was another important departure from the play. The fast moving express trains depicting danger (Laura’s suicide attempt), which can transport people to far-off, exotic locations are seen in stark contrast with the slower moving commuter trains which carry the characters back to their mundane, suburban existences.

In Still Life, Coward makes it clear that Laura and Alec’s affair is sexual. Although it was acceptable in theater of the period to allude to characters indulging in sexual relationships, it was absolutely forbidden in cinema of the period to show it. As a result, Coward had to create a new scene for the movie to show that Laura and Alec were only on the brink of a sexual relationship. The scene takes place in Steven Lynn’s apartment where the lovers are interrupted (another example of time) by his sudden, unexpected arrival, causing Laura to flee. The scene reaches its conclusion with Laura sitting alone at the war memorial. It is the only high-camera angle shot in the movie, showing the phallic image of a great gun towering over the small, crushed and abandoned Laura sitting crumpled on a park bench beneath.

The music from Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto is a fundamental element in Brief Encounter. Its passionate, turbulent music relates to the character of Laura. It is her theme, her leitmotiv, and accompanies Celia Johnson’s narration of Laura’s story. Interestingly, the soloist on the soundtrack to the movie is Eileen Joyce. Was it intentional to have a female soloist as musical protagonist, a direct parallel to Laura?

John Caird’s libretto for the opera Brief Encounter uses text from both the play and the movie as well as new text written by Caird for the opera. The three principal characters, Laura, Alec, and Fred are eminently suited to operatic treatment because they have feelings and secrets which they find difficult to discuss with anyone else, hence their need to confess their innermost thoughts and feelings to the audience. It is the very essence of operatic form.

To create a balance among the three principal protagonists, the roles of Alec and Fred will be more developed, especially the character of Fred, whom Caird finds rather unbelievable in the movie. Yet in its closing moments as Laura reaches the end of her confession, Fred is given one of the movie’s most important lines, “thank you for coming back to me.” How ironic that the man who spends his time solving crossword puzzles is so puzzled by the deepening divide in his relationship with his own wife.

In the opera it is clear that Fred is aware of something terrible happening between Laura and himself, but is either too afraid to face the problem, or simply incapable of reacting to it, making his character and predicament more noble and interesting. For Laura to realize at the end of the opera that Fred was not unsuspecting, as she says in her confession, “How easy it is to lie when one is completely trusted.” makes her return to him, as unfaithful wife, even more painful.

The emotional and intellectual impulses which cause people to stay together or separate, the meaning and importance of romance in a relationship, defines both Still Life and Brief Encounter. Good stories are eminently suited to many adaptations, and Brief Encounter is more than just a good story, it is a great one.

HGO Dramaturg Colin Ure writes frequently for Opera Cues magazine.