High Noon review at the Harold Pinter Theatre London
Summary: High Noon is a new play, adapted from the 1952 Western starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Written by Gary Roth, the play is his stage debut, although he has written extensively for the screen, including an Oscar win for Forrest Gump. It’s not necessarily a play that’s doing anything new or fresh, but there is enough tension to hold the audience for the 100-minute running time, enough humour to stop it from feeling too heavy, and the quintessential Western gunfight as a finale.
This is the world premiere of the High Noon play. Played in real time, the story follows Will Kane, the marshal of a New Mexico town, and Amy Fowler Kane, his new wife, on their wedding day. Kane has to decide whether to follow his belief in doing the right thing by the town he’s served or follow his new wife and her Quaker belief of pacifism in the face of the return of newly released outlaw Frank Miller and his gang on the noon train.
High Noon Review: 3/5⭐
Billy Crudup and Denise Gough play the newlyweds. Both established names in theatre, their performances are believable as two people caught between their own long-held beliefs, their commitment to and respect of their partner, and a sense of duty. Every character is conflicted in some way, between their own belief and some outside force. Billy Howle is intense as Will Kane’s deputy, Harvey Pell, a man determined to take over Kane’s position, although the town elders seem set on bringing in new blood. Rosa Salazar’s performance as Helen Ramirez is, perhaps, the strongest of the ensemble cast as a woman caught between her relationships and her business interests, which she feels she has to keep hidden as a Mexican woman in an American town. There are some points where the action and delivery make it hard to believe that some characters are as solid as they claim in their convictions.
There are points where the pacing of both the writing and the direction falls a little flat. It felt like Crudup’s Kane was travelling through the town looking for support to face the returning killers for far longer than needed to make the point, and a few times where arguments felt a little dragged out. Whether this is a result of the story being an adaptation of a film, I’m not sure.
Tim Hatley’s set design is very clever and helps with setting the changing scenes as characters move through the town, with walls sliding in and out, and the many entrances and exits from the stage are used to great dramatic effect. The slatted walls provide ample opportunity for some creative lighting design by Neil Austin, further heightening the tension in the final scenes. While the large clock at the centre of the set could feel a bit gimmicky, the tie-in with the script and sound design makes it a more central part of the show. The finale, starting with the arrival of the much-anticipated noon train, is where the pacing and drama really jump. The design of the train is one of those moments that make theatre feel really magical, and the gunfight between Will Kane and Frank Miller’s gang is just as tense as any Western film.
There are moments of humour that break up the tension of the play, and the singing from Denise Gough, Rosa Salazar and Misha Handley serves as a nice addition to break up scenes that could become repetitive otherwise, although at some points it feels a bit out of place. This is a generally engaging play, and while based on the film, it is not a direct film-to-stage adaptation. The themes of personal responsibility, morality and the balance between personal belief and the compromise of being in a relationship remain as relevant now as they were when the film was released in 1952.
Where I Sat
We sat in the Dress Circle, which is accessed on the same level as the main entrance of the theatre, making finding our seats easy (and would have given us easy access to the foyer bar if there had been an interval). Dress Circle C19 is one in from the end of the row, but against a wall rather than an outside aisle. The curve of the section means that you are looking at the stage at a slight angle, but not with any restriction. C20, the end of the row, is restricted due to the wall next to it. The rake of the seats wasn’t quite enough to avoid the heads of people in front, but luckily, they weren’t too tall!