By Eleanor Knight
Borne in on a lusty tide of sea shanties and out again on the ghostly breath of the doomed Rebecca, Kneehigh’s triumphant reclamation of du Maurier’s classic matches the elemental threat of the Cornish sea with the sinister power of the human psyche.
There is also an embarrassing dog who won’t stop sniffing the new bride and an excitable servant whose mother is having a troublesome menopause.
True to form, Kneehigh embrace high drama and high camp all at once, gathering up literary and theatrical ghosts like costumes as they go.
As Mrs de Winter (Imogen Sage is mesmerising) faces up to the memory of her fictional predecessor, so Tristan Sturrock as Maxim must see off the spirit of Olivier.
Director Emma Rice, one of theatre’s best story-tellers, has made such whole-hearted adaptations her stock-in trade.
The clipped vowels and tight buttons of the period pop open every now and again as the story takes a gulp of fresh air, and the new Mrs de Winter embarks on sensuous voyage of self –discovery, consigning the peaky victim of the original firmly to the last century.
Daphne would most definitely have approved.
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