The Stage

Night Must Fall

Published Friday 30 September 2005 at 10:35 by Victor Hallett

Is Night Must Fall a creaky old melodrama or a dark modern psychological thriller? Under Terry Hands’ direction it is seen to be both. Before the interval the production takes its tone from Mrs Bramson’s beloved East Lynne with the mixture of comedy, seething resentment and suspicion played deliberately stagy. Afterwards the darker horrors of obsessive fantasy worlds take over and the final murder becomes a screaming nightmare of strobe lighting.

Lee Haven-Jones plays Dan, who is all things to all women. He is especially good at being Mrs Bramson’s naughty boy. He seems attracted to Olivia because her primness reminds him of the Sunday School teachers of his Welsh youth. Jenny Livsey brings out Olivia’s desperate need for sexual danger very well, greatly helped by Charles Millham’s deliciously funny performance as the safe but boring option. However, her armour-plated stiffness is too unvarying for too much of the time.

Dilys Laye is an excellent Mrs Bramson, demanding in her helplessness, giggly in her ‘mother-son’ relationship and very convincing as a corpse. The other stand-out is Lynn Hunter playing the housekeeper’s bolshieness with enormous gusto.

Ultimately it’s the darkness that takes over and when Dan starts to break apart, Lee Haven-Jones powerfully shows the black soul of the killer whose guilt pushes him further into the abyss. The passionate kiss from Olivia as he is led away is electrifying. Even when played perfectly in period as here, Night Must Fall proves it is still a play for our times after all.