“‘A conversation with him across the decades’ feels closer to the mark.”
So says writer and performer Mark Kydd regarding the ghost of Noël Coward, a spectre that haunts his solo play, Our Martin in the Background. It is a conversation that began at the Edinburgh Fringe last August, where the show enjoyed a sell-out run which I, to my regret, failed to catch.
Fortunately for those of us who missed the connection the first time around, Kydd returns to the Scottish Storytelling Centre this Saturday for a one-off matinee.
Reimagining Brief Encounter’s Hidden History
The premise is ripe with potential for any student of British cinema. We follow Martin, a background artist filming David Lean’s masterpiece Brief Encounter at a freezing Carnforth railway station in 1945. While Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard enact their repressed tragedy in the foreground, Martin embarks on a forbidden, shadow affair of his own with a fellow extra, Hugh.
While the play has been described as the queer love story Coward didn’t write, Kydd is clear that he isn’t trying to rewrite history.
“Picking up the thread of a possible queer subtext in Still Life/Brief Encounter as a starting point, I’ve created a companion piece which I trust stands up in its own right,” he explains. “The play isn’t an attempt to correct any record.”
Instead, it focuses on the gritty reality of 1945, stripping away the silver screen sheen to find the truth of the connection between Martin and the unseen Hugh.
“Picking up the thread of a possible queer subtext in Still Life/Brief Encounter as a starting point, I’ve created a companion piece which I trust stands up in its own right,” he explains. “The play isn’t an attempt to correct any record.”
“This wasn’t a Hollywood film, of course, and 1940s British cinema was a very different proposition to its US counterpart,” Kydd says. He notes that despite the location, “there are levels of irony here – the practical challenges of wartime location work during a bitterly cold winter and the artifice of what’s being created – that Martin is aware of and wryly comments on.”
More than just a cosy Alan Bennett tribute
It is inevitable that a monologue of this nature—blending Northern voice, class consciousness, and comedy—will draw comparisons to Alan Bennett. But is that a double-edged sword? Kydd notes that while he is “flattered by the comparison,” the perception of Bennett as “cosy” is often wide of the mark.
“It’s surprisingly layered and complex,” Kydd argues. “A close reading of his characters reveals many of them to have teeth – they’re just bared selectively. Martin responds to events with a wit and humour intrinsic to his nature, which we see being sharpened – and blunted – by his experiences.”
Navigating the politics of invisibility
The play’s strapline posits that while we are all extras in others’ lives, we are the stars of our own. However, in 1945, invisibility was less a theatrical term and more a survival strategy for gay men.
“We see Martin at two different points in his life,” Kydd explains. “As a young ‘background artist’ discovering his sexuality, he is thinking romantically and not in political terms at all. When we meet him later in life, maintaining a low profile has become more of a pragmatic and personal choice.”
Bookended by scenes set in 1968—in the wake of the Sexual Offences Act and on the cusp of Gay Liberation—the play suggests that a life lived in the background takes its toll. As Kydd notes: “Martin doesn’t comment directly on these matters, but his life ‘in the background’ has perhaps coloured his views about them in ways he is only partly aware of.”
A Valentine’s Day matinee for LGBT History Month
Performing this on February 14th sets a specific weight of expectation. Is this a show for the romantics, or should the audience bring tissues? Kydd suggests the timing—falling squarely in the middle of LGBT+ History Month—makes it a natural choice.
“Martin doesn’t comment directly on these matters, but his life ‘in the background’ has perhaps coloured his views about them in ways he is only partly aware of.”
“To different people, it might be any of the above! There is a specific Valentine’s Day connection within Our Martin… which made performing it on February 14th a natural choice.”
For those looking to escape the commercial clichés of the holiday and engage with a piece of theatre that promises wit, history, and heart, this looks to be the ticket. As Kydd observes, scheduling the performance in the afternoon offers a distinct advantage, in that it “will leave audience members free to reflect on their own first loves as they head to dinner.”
Featured Image: Our Martin in the Background Flyer – courtesy Mark Kydd
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