Grace Chapple’s “A Room With a View”, based on the novel of the same title by E. M. Forster, was a delightful adaptation brought to stage, with a dose of heartfelt romance and subtle yet at other times bold, uproarious humour.
At first glance the set was minimal. A few chairs, tall doors and windows introduced the audience to a hotel room in Florence. This remained the set throughout the whole play, with some additions. It became apparent as the play progressed that the set did not need to be cluttered with period furniture and ornate furnishings. The costumes were beautiful and intricately detailed enough to place us in the exact time period of the early 1900’s, courtesy of set and costume designer Zoe Atkinson.
Lighting designer Amelia Lever-Davidson, sound designer Madeleine Picard and composer Grace Ferguson pulled together masterfully to create an atmosphere to surround the characters and convey exactly where they were at any given time. This was through nuanced lighting and clever sound design. One standout scene was when three characters, George Emerson (Luke Wiltshire) Freddy (Tomas Kantor) and Mr Beebe (Tom Conroy) went swimming in the pond in the woods in Surrey. When they ducked under the water in a circle together, the light spotlit the men using cool blue tones and underwater meditative sounds. This, combined with the actors’ slow and exaggerated ‘underwater movements’ and playful interactions whilst holding their breaths had me almost believing they were going to emerge from this scene totally soaked when their heads popped up.
“A Room With a View” follows Lucy Honeychurch (Nathalie Morris) as she begins her holiday in Florence with the older and wiser (in her own words) Charlotte (Hayley McElhinney). Charlotte has been put in charge by Lucy’s mum Mrs Honeychurch (Kate Atkinson). She is accompanying her naive-to-the world cousin and promises to keep Lucy safe and ladylike, a responsibility which she takes extremely seriously. McElhinney’s exacting potrayal of an anxious Charlotte rang true to her character, kudos to her.
It is in Florence where the ladies meet Mr Emerson (Patrick Williams) and his kind hearted son George (Luke Wiltshire). He offers his room with a beautiful view of the piazza to Charlotte and Lucy after overhearing them wishing their room had a view. Morris effortlessly became her character and immersed into Lucy with ease, portraying her as a young woman genuinely torn between acting as society expects – a respectful and quiet young lady – and the need to burst out of her conventional self to bloom into a spirited woman who wants more than being a subservient wife and living a sombre life.
Williams played Mr Emerson well, portraying his kind, honest and truthful heart in a calm and likeable manner. His poetic delivery of advice towards the end hits to the core of the play and the message the audience are left to ponder – “We fight for more than Love or Pleasure; there is Truth. Truth counts, Truth does count.” – is poignant.
There are outings together in Florence and one day, they are taken on a sight seeing trip led by a confident and outgoing Italian driver, portrayed by Tomas Kantor. After the British tourists leave, the Italian driver, cigarette in hand, turns to the audience and begins a one way conversation. He spoke expressively about the tourists in fluent Italian, even pouring a drink from a wine bottle into a glass that he gave to some front row patrons, thus breaking the fourth wall. How did we know what he was saying? With the very creative use of subtitles! This was done the 1900’s way with a projector and with the Italian driver manually clicking through slides as he spoke. This delighted myself and from the audience’s laughs, they appreciated it too.
Later, the play progresses to Windy Corner and Surrey where Lucy lives with her mum Mrs Honeychurch (Kate Atkinson) and her younger and animated brother Freddie, played by Tomas Kantor. Mr Beebe, the local Pastor who had also been in Italy, has new neighbours move in who happen to be Mr Emerson and his son George. They had been invited to stay by Mr Cecil Vyse (Charles Wu). Lucy announces her engagement to Cecil. Wu’s portrayal of Cecil is excellent, and we see that this upper class character, “a fortunate man of leisure”, is a mismatch for dynamic Lucy. There is a very funny scene which highlights this. Lucy, George and Freddy are playing tennis. As each ball hits the tennis racquet, it was highlighted with a live note struck by Patrick Williams discreetly situated at the back behind the windows on a keyboard. As they are screaming with laughter, running around and having rallies (resulting in a shower of musical notes being played), Cecil sits on the umpires chair, trying to read a novel and looking extremely uncomfortable amongst the physicalities and laughter from his fiancé and the men. Lucy is faced with the choice of continuing her engagement or breaking it off with Cecil, and trusting and following her heart, to wherever and to whomever that may be.
Serious themes such as the complexities of one’s heart, women in society, family and class structure and expectations are balanced perfectly with the lighter moments brought to the stage by the cast. One such scene comes with a full frontal nudity scene warning on the program, and not having viewed the program before the play began, this particular scene was a surprise and created the intended hilarious response from myself and from the audience. Director Hannah Goodwin, A Belvoir St Fellowship Awardee, has brought together a captivating and complete reimagining of a novel nearly one hundred and twenty years old, and it is a timeless theatrical masterpiece! Book your tickets to “A Room With a View” at The Belvoir Theatre soon, before it changes its room with a view and onwards travels to Melbourne.
“A Room With a View” is playing from 3 October – 1 November at The Belvoir St Theatre.
25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills 2010.
Run Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes (including a 20 minute interval)
Tickets: www.belvoir.com.au/productions/a-room-with-a-view
To book tickets to A Room With a View, please visit https://belvoir.com.au/productions/a-room-with-a-view/.
Photographer: Brett Boardman
