45 Years at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester Review
Gillian Bevan, Geraldine James and Gabriel Byrne. Photo: Helen Murray
Written by Stephen Gilchrist for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review. All views are our own
I have to confess that I have never seen the 2015 British film written and directed by Andrew Haigh. It starred Tom Courtney and Charlotte Rampling, who won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and Tom Courtenay for Best Actor. She was also nominated for an Academy Award. Not having seen it, I can tell you about this play without preconception.
It is an understated and moving piece of theatre which touched me viscerally. I was immediately reminded of ‘No Exit’, the 1944 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre in which three recently deceased characters find themselves locked in a mysterious room in Hell, the message being ‘Hell is other people’. In ‘45 Years’, the two central characters, Geoff and Kate, are not dead They are alive, ordinary, retired and living within an outwardly comfortable marriage bubble in Norfolk. The 45 year mark of the marriage is about to be celebrated.
Geoff (Gabriel Byrne) receives a letter from Switzerland. Fifty years ago, Geoff and his then girlfriend Katya were travelling whilst masquerading as a married couple, when Katya fell into a ravine. Her body has now been discovered fully preserved by ice. The delicate balance of Geoff and Kate’s relationship begins to be questioned as memories, secrets, unasked and unanswered questions, become unlocked day by day in the week before their big anniversary party. Introduced into the mix is Lena, Kate’s ‘bestie’ who functions primarily as a sounding board, helping organise Kate and Geoff's 45th anniversary party whilst revealing thematic insights about aging and long-term relationships.
Hannah Patterson’s skilful adaptation moves this three-hander along in a series of short scenes, with intervening blackouts punctuated by snatches of pop hits from the sixties. It doesn’t trumpet its message, nor is it oversentimental, and strives to describe a relationship with which it is possible to identify at a raw and elemental level. It is enhanced by the bare setting (James Coterll) on the Minerva’s thrust stage, and which, for most of the show’s eighty minutes, consists of three chairs and a cabinet on a stepped, mottled stage (suggesting suburban carpeting) and a ceiling leading to an ‘attic.’ Guy Hoare’s sometimes surprising lighting adds to the atmosphere.
The drama in Paesanna Puwanarajah well directed production is low-key, Kate (Geraldine James) tries to accommodate her husband’s uncertain feelings on the recovery of the body. He looks, covertly, in the attic for pictures and memorabilia of their relationship. Kate is increasingly disturbed by what she considers her husband’s obsession with a previous relationship of which she was not part and from which she now feels excluded. The fabric of the marriage tears, but is it terminal? The play’s ambivalent denouement takes place at their anniversary party, the couple, for the benefit of their guests, dressed to the nines and so differently from the casual and somewhat dishevelled appearance they adopt at home and with which we have become accustomed..
This is a play about how a traumatic incident can trigger long lost memories, the revival of emotional feelings long thought gone, and the disclosure of hidden baggage and reflections on ‘roads untraveled’ -those unchosen paths, missed opportunities, and untaken directions in life.
Geraldine James (who played Lena in the film) now plays Kate and both she and Byrne deliver restrained, unflashy and authentic performances, perfectly delivering an easily recognisable relationship with which we can all identify. They are neither antagonist nor protagonist, just an unremarkable couple struggling with the vagaries of everyday life. Both give first class performances and provide characterisations with which the audience can empathise. Gillian Bevan plays Lena, her chirpy, humorously upbeat and chatty tone contrasting with those of the couple. She is also excellent.
‘45 Years’ is a poignant thought provoking play, beautifully written and performed by an ace cast which, unless you have a heart of stone, will move you at a profound level.
★★★★