REVIEWS REVIEWS
This new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's classic novel by Frank McGuinness has been a roaring success, and deservedly so. Directed by Patrick Mason, the cast works well together and delivers a smooth and often humorous performance. Margaret Robinson as Mrs van Hopper, the acutely snobbish American abroad, and the grandmother who dresses up as Elizabeth I is particularly entertaining, with additional cameo roles adding to the fun as the story opens in Monte Carlo, where the distinguished and gentlemanly Maxim de Winter (Nigel Havers) meets his young new wife (Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh).
The story then transfers to Manderley, the large country house in Cornwall where they settle after their whirlwind romance. Despite being stripped down and simple, the set (designed by Robert Jones with lighting design by Howard Harrison) is very effective; I imagine more so if you are in the stalls and get the full impact of the floor to ceiling crashing waves. It successfully evokes the atmosphere of Manderley, with a huge screen showing the changing weather and play of light on seas that are stormy and calm by turns.
This is reflective of the changes in emotional mood as the dark secret that refuses to lay buried gradually begins to reveal itself. The hearty common sense of hunting-shooting Beatrice (played by Amanda Waldy) and her jovial husband Giles (Ian Barritt) is interlaced with increasingly violent and disturbed outbursts from the evil Mrs Danvers, a superb study in misplaced devotion and misperception of her place in the dead Rebecca's affections from Maureen Beattie.
Maxim de Winter gradually becomes more distant from his new wife as the memory of Rebecca reaches from beyond her watery grave to continue to battle against him. Left to her own devices, surrounded by reminders of how brilliantly Rebecca shone, the shy and uncertain second Mrs de Winter falls prey to Mrs Danver, who has lovingly kept the east wing of Manderley exactly as it was left on the day Rebecca drowned. Blaming herself for not being at home to prevent her death, she is superbly obsessive and ferociously jealous. Jealousy appears to be a form of madness, driving her to ever more desperate attempts to rid Manderley of anyone who could replace Rebecca.
The most dramatic moments are wonderfully chilling. At the end of the first act the face of Mrs Danvers suddenly appears suspended behind the transparent black curtain, sinister and spine-tinglingly scary. In the second act the tension builds more tightly as one of Rebecca's former lovers, the alcoholic cad Jack Favell (Guy Williams), tries to implicate Maxim in her death. With her husband under threat, Mrs de Winter suddenly finds her strength and comes out fighting at last. The confrontation between them leads to the ultimate revenge as Manderley is destroyed in a conflagration and the set seems to go up in flames. If you judge its success by the number of times you get a chill down your spine and jump at the appearance of the malevolent Mrs Danvers, this performance gets full marks. © DOS
“Rebecca” is in Richmond on the 9th until the 14th of May, 2005.
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