A new stage adaptation of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, by Bryony Lavery, comes to Newcastle’s Northern Stage in May as part of a national tour. Produced by Pilot Theatre and York Theatre Royal and co-commissioned by The Lowry, the play will run from 1 to 5 May. It is directed by Pilot Theatre’s new Artistic Director, Esther Richardson, who took over from Marcus Romer in July 2016, and features a soundtrack composed by singer, musician and composer Hannah Peel.
The novel was written in 1938 and first adapted for the stage at the Garrick Theatre in 1943, with Richard Attenborough playing anti-hero Pinkie and Dulcie Gray as Rose. Attenborough went on to star in the now iconic Boulting Brothers 1947 film, which was scripted by Greene and Terrence Rattigan.
The novel was also adapted as a radio play in 1997, as a musical at the Almeida in 2004, where it ran for less than a month, and was filmed again in 2010, being updated to the Mods and Rockers era of Brighton.
Explaining why she has written another stage adaptation, Bryony Lavery explained, “it is such a treasure chest of narrative delights. It has got everything... It's a love story, a revenge tragedy, a small-town murder mystery, an array of small-time gangsters and a middle-aged woman who knows no fear and who will stop at nothing to do right. In the poisoned relationship between Pinkie and Rose, there is one of the best accounts ever of what it is like to be 16 and 17 years old in a terrible, violent, adolescence.”
Her play Frozen, commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, won the TMA Best Play Award and was then produced on Broadway where it was nominated for four Tony Awards. It is currently being revived at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Stockholm, for Frantic Assembly, won the Wolff-Whiting award for Best play of 2008. Beautiful Burnout for The National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly received a Fringe First at Edinburgh, before performances in the UK, New York, Australia and New Zealand. Recent work includes The Believers for Frantic Assembly, Thursday for ETT/Brink, Australia, Brideshead Revisited for York Theatre Royal/ETT and Our Mutual Friend for Hull Truck Theatre.
Composer Hannah Peel said, “the menacing aspects to the 1930s story are even more resonant today so I am really excited about working Pilot Theatre for this incredible stage version of Brighton Rock. With an even greater sense darkness in the current world climate, my mind is already buzzing from the amount of music and sonic possibilities we will be bringing live to the stage.”
You can hear director Esther Richardson, adapter Bryony Lavery and composer Hannah Peel talking about this production in York in the BTG podcast.