Brimming with potential, but not quite there yet

Produced by Lost Text/Found Space, this all-female adaptation of Noel Coward’s Still Lives is the final part of Making Connections 24, a series of free and affordable community art events taking place in the Old Waiting Room at Peckham Rye Station.

The Grade II listed Victorian building has been disused for nearly 50 years, and sits between two working platforms at Peckham Rye station, with high arched windows looking out to either side. The ceilings are high, the space eerily cavernous, and the noise of overgrounds chugging past on their way to Clapham Junction, or Highbury, blends seamlessly with the sounds of steam trains pumped through production speakers. 

I was ready to be healthily sceptical, ‘site-specific’, being thrown around rather liberally these days, but this adaptation by Dan Rebellato traces the lives and key moments of its characters as they pass through a railway station waiting room over the course of a year – it has a proper claim to the description. Fortuitously, a train did actually pull away from the platform while Laura (Haydn) has her hands pressed desperately to the window, watching her lover leave for the last time.

The production began 10 minutes late, with the audience kept waiting outside the building as the cast assemble. If this was a point, it felt laboured, and I did not have the patience for it. We follow the cast as they wind their way up several flights of stairs to the set. Lines from the script are echoed by various cast members as they lingeringly trail up the staircase. In response to one particular refrain – ‘will we ever see each other again’ – a gentleman in front of me remarks to his companion, ‘Well, not at this rate.’ I have to concur: this opening section is too long and should be cut entirely, or at least hastened on a bit.

Still Life was originally a short play by Coward, one of ten plays that made up Tonight at 08.30. Here, it’s mashed up with another, Coward’s 1952 Quadrille. Along with some of the production choices, this takes the run time up to 90 minutes. 90 minutes is too long to be a vignette.

The chairs scattered around the set do create an involved experience, however I think design should defer to certain practical considerations here. Often, members of the cast were not visible, and I noted I wasn’t the only one craning my neck to see. When you’re at the opposite end of the vast space, it can be quite difficult to catch the dialogue, especially when the actors have their backs to you. Several scenes were half lost on me as a result of this.

However, these issues are on the whole redeemed by a stellar all-female cast. Grace Haydn as Laura is conveys that woman-on-the-brink-of-shattering energy just when she needs to, and carries the whole performance of with sensitivity and delicacy. Annabel Marlow is delightful in her various roles – genuinely comedic, and versatile. Izabelle Lee shone as brash American businessman Axel, although was charming throughout.

This is a good adaptation, with some excellent acting, but it needs refining.