Lady Chatterley's Lover, English Touring Theatre/Sheffield Theatres, at York Theatre Royal, until tomorrow. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk WERE you wondering when you could next see a Phillip Breen production after his epic staging of the York Minster Mystery Plays this summer?
The answer is right here, right now, at York Theatre Royal, where English Touring Theatre/Sheffield Theatres are on tour with writer-director Breen's new adaptation of THAT book, the 1928 DH Lawrence one that lead actress Hedydd Dylan recalls her grandfather keeping in a safe as it was banned (until 1960).
This is the second literary tome deemed difficult to transfer from page to stage to make its journey to the new Theatre Royal auditorium this year. Bryony Lavery's Brideshead Revisited focused on the brittle relationship of middle-class Charles and posh Julia; Breen throws the spotlight on the tenderness at the heart of Lady Chatterley's love affair with Mellors, the new gamekeeper.
In contrast to his Mystery Plays, he favours minimalist staging by designer Laura Hopkins (no woods, sparse furniture) and an opening burst of short scenes that begin in winter four years on from impotent Sir Clifford Chatterley (Eugene O'Hare) being invalided from the Great War. Those scenes establish character traits, circumstance, the social order and more besides, recounting the frustrated Lady C's fling with an Irish playwright and nervous breakdown in a stultifying marriage. A pianist (David Osmond) in the corner acts as a musical Greek chorus throughout.
Jonah Russell's Mellors appears to be living at a different pace in the woods, almost in slow motion at first, to emphasise the contrast, and as the seasons change so does the relationship of Mellors and Dylan's Connie. Sex scenes on stage can be awkward, especially for the audience, and while a rug on a hard floor is hardly ideal, nevertheless Russell and Dylan combine the explicit and the tasteful, naked bodies, flowers and all.
What's more, it isn't only about the sex. Tenderness, Lawrence's alternative title, holds sway in Breen's account, but he lets us see the changing world too, without Lawrence's heavy-handed politicking.
Lady Chatterley's Lover, English Touring Theatre/Sheffield Theatres, at York Theatre Royal, until Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
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