BWW Reviews: THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, Union Theatre, September 12th 2010

The Union Theatre is quietly building up a reputation for staging big musicals on a small scale. The Remains of the Day is the latest candidate for the railway arches treatment, brought to Southwark in a co-production by Fallen Angel and Ben David Productions. It might not seem obvious musical theatre material, based on the epic novel of repressed emotion and early 20th-century European politics by Kazuo Ishiguro and perhaps made more famous by Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in the film adaptation.

Yet some of this show works surprisingly well. This is pretty much entirely down to the touching, subtle performances of Stephen Rashbrook as butler Stevens and Lucy Bradshaw as housekeeper Miss Kenton. Both are compelling viewing, and work with the frequently limited (by necessity) material they have, endowing it with rich emotion.

The rest of the sprawling narrative (sliced down to size with a very sharp editing knife) is conveyed by a relatively small supporting cast doubling and tripling up their roles - indeed, today, the supporting cast was even further reduced by the illness of one performer and the withdrawal from the company of another. One would expect that to mean that the stage would open up with additional space for the remaining actors, yet still somehow it felt cramped. The direction frequently felt flat and unimaginative, and the choreography was simple yet uninspiring. Again, this may sometimes be due to the missing cast members, but this was a recurring problem. Perhaps in a bigger venue, the creatives would be able to give their ideas free rein (though I've seen several shows in the Union that have done great work in that space), but I wouldn't be sure of that. I was also rather disappointed with the four-piece band, hidden from view and accompanying the cast with a surprising lack of sensitivity (and more than a handful of discordant wrong notes and squeaks).

Yet even in spite of these flaws, this is a show worth seeing for the musical theatre-lover, and one worth polishing up for the creative team. It has the ability to connect with and move its audience - with work, this could be a very good show.

The Remains of the Day runs at the Union Theatre, Southwark, until September 25th.