Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1989 Booker prize-winning novel is narrated by Stevens, the butler who, late in life, embarks on a very British road trip that takes him metaphorically down memory lane and geographically to Cornwall. Although the action here, flitting, as in the book, between the 1930s past and 1958 present, is fluidly directed by Christopher Haydon, the subtlety of Ishiguro’s story is lost. Barney Norris’s dramatic construction feels clunky: overlapping scenes look beautiful, thanks to designer Lily Arnold’s gorgeous, gilt-framed, sliding panels, but they are chopped and spliced together, confusing timescales and diffusing dramatic tension.
Stevens’s journey is prompted by a letter from Mrs Benn (née Kenton), whom the butler has not seen since before the second world war – it is now 1958. Kenton was housekeeper to Lord Darlington (now reviled as a notorious appeaser). Niamh Cusack multilayers Kenton’s longing for a more intimate relation with her colleague, shattered when her ploy to goad him into action by threatening to marry another misfires. Stevens’s trip revives not only memories but also half-hidden feelings. In a moving performance of restraint and longing, Stephen Boxer reveals Stevens’s hopes that Mrs Benn’s letters describing marital strife mean she might be persuaded to return to Darlington Hall, now owned by a wealthy American.
Perhaps taking his cue from James Ivory’s multi-Oscar-nominated 1993 film adaptation (starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thomson), Norris concertinas the road trip. Emphasis on the prewar disdain of those in power for “the will of the people” brings out contemporary resonances but the most successful part of the production is the “sentimental love story”.
The Remains of the Day is at Royal & Derngate, Northampton, until 16 March, then touring
