Dominic Dromgoole takes the reins for the first ever theatre adaptation of Quartet in Autumn, with resounding success. Dromgoole, the ex-artistic director of the Globe, leads an excellent cast that makes the transition from novel to play appear seamless.
1970s post-war London. Four colleagues quietly work at their uneventful office job while they wait for the tide of time to take them into the uncertain waters of retirement. The play could span a single day or several months; it is left purposefully ambiguous. The daily repetitive toil continues as the four workers, two men and two women, discuss loneliness in a changing Britain, love, depression and one’s place in the world.
The Arcola Theatre delivers once again, with the first ever theatrical adaptation of Barbara Pym’s Booker-shortlisted novel; Quartet in Autumn is written by Booker Prize Winner Samantha Harvey. A far cry from novels about space, Harvey instead looks inward, discussing monotony on Earth beautifully.
The dialogue is reminiscent of something like Yes Minister. That is to say, the comical, painfully awkward, often patronising curtness of the British. The play revolves around the quasi-polite standoffishness that is unique to the English. Conversation topics include curtain-twitching neighbours, ticket men, retiring to the country, the younger generation running marathons, toothaches, and other banalities that pepper the delightful dialogue, somehow making the most insufferably dull office chat comical – hysterically so in some cases. The cast, in fact, keep having to stop to let the audience finish laughing. As the play gets more serious it somehow becomes funnier in parallel. Gags about elderly English characters clearly land well with a receptive audience.
Norman (played by Paul Rider) is possibly the easiest character to play, with few lines and all of them comical, but Rider delivers them well. Edwin (Anthony Calf) and Marcia (Pooky Quesnel) come into their own in the second act, delivering human, powerful performances. Kate Duchêne, as Letty, is the clear standout and drives the play forward from the first word to the last, being hilarious throughout. The excellent Simon Kunz is credited as a voiceover artist for the production, no doubt aiding with the more ethereal elements of Quartet in Autumn.
Skylar Turnbull Hurd’s spartan use of lighting means the actors have the full attention of the audience, as the stage is often darkened save for one light on the speaking actor. Similarly, Ellie Wintour’s set design is simple but faultless. The stopped clock in the office is a particularly nice touch in a play about the uneventful quotidien of post-war British office life.
Pym and Harvey do a great job of showing us how normal, uninteresting people deal with their normal, uninteresting lives and the prospect of life after retirement. Each character has a unique way of looking at their future, whether it be through the Church, alcohol, or dogmatically collecting empty milk bottles in preparation for the next World War. Quartet in Autumn is fantastically entertaining, and runs until 20 June.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
