★★★★☆

There’s absolutely no point in updating Brief Encounter. This story of a couple who put a potential romantic relationship aside for the good of everyone else is very much of its era. Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production wisely decides to burrow into its old-school setting, using contemporary music (‘Mad About The Boy’) and tracing the roots back to Noël Coward’s original play, Still Life, from which the popular Trevor Howard/Celia Johnson film was developed.

Emma Rice’s adaptation is largely set in Milford Junction railway station tearoom; it seems to have a house band (à la Sam Mendes’ Cabaret), but that’s a nice change from the potential drabness. We also zero in on Laura, the married woman who gets a bit of grit in her eye, swiftly removed by Alec, a GP who has a family and children of his own. Things develop, with our couple going boating in the rain and even enjoying illicit meetings at the house of Alec’s friend. But the course of true love doesn’t run smooth when there are friends and strangers who begin to notice their flirtation, and Laura has to make a difficult decision that will work for them both.

Brief Encounter is often considered to be a very English rather than British story; the cut-glass accents in the film are replaced here with something less posh, and this incarnation of Alec and Laura is exhumed from the past to good effect. There’s also more of an ensemble, with an expanded universe featuring tearoom staff, pre-WWII soldiers and the previously mentioned band. That combination gives this version more energy than you might expect, and Laura more agency. Setting aside a little of the play’s stuffiness, this Brief Encounter brings the text to vibrant life.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre, until Friday 29 September.