‘Still Life’ proves moving in local show

Every Thursday Laura Jesson (Tanya Lehman) takes the train from her small English hamlet to the big city; London awaits. She does the week’s shopping, exchanges her library book and goes to the pictures.

Her life isn’t incredibly interesting, by anyone’s standards — including her own — but it’s enough.

In her own words, she is a happily married woman. She has a husband. Her children are upstairs in bed. She has a house. This is her whole world and it is enough. Or rather, it was.

What happens when the humdrum of her existence putters to a sudden stop? This is the subject of Noel Coward’s 1935 play “Still Life,” recently put on by the Middlebury Community Players at the Town Hall Theater, Feb. 17-21.

The curtain rises on the end of an affair. It is Laura’s affair, and she is saying goodbye to her lover, Alec Harvey (Ken Tichacek), for the last time. He is going to Africa, partly to avoid her — at her behest — partly for a new beginning. They clasp hands across the teashop table.

He says: “I love you.”

She says: “I want to die.”

Then, they are interrupted by a gossipy acquaintance of Laura’s and their last moments are relegated to a brief handshake and a meaningful glance. The train toots and chugs away. That is all.

Through a series of sparsely sketched scenes the play traces the genesis of Laura and Alec’s relationship, from a chance meeting and immediate repartee at the station to a sputtering end. They are both married, and the complications of their affair are contrasted with the comfortable if dull love between Laura and her husband Fred (Tom Noble), as well as the simplicity of a budding romance between shop girl Beryl (Catriona Bechtel) and Stanley (Jonah Lefkoe).

Part of a larger production, “Still Life” is one of 10 one-act plays written by Coward and meant to be performed in groups of three over the course of several nights. Several of the plays were later expanded into movies, including this one which inspired the 1946 film “Brief Encounter.” The playwright is reputed to have preferred the shorter form, citing his ability to sustain a mood for the duration without it becoming stilted.

He certainly succeeds here. The play is a snapshot of suburban mores — a “Still Life” based almost entirely in the train station’s teashop. Cheap tables, pasties and mugs become the constant backdrop for the many forms, sometimes awkwardly packaged, love takes.

Boisterous exchanges between shopkeeper Myrtle (Kendra Gratton) and her would-be lover, comfortably middle-aged ticket collector Albert (Wendel Jacobs), as well as the tentative romance between Beryl and Stanley act as a counterpoint to the frustrations of Laura and Alec’s affair, which must necessarily end in goodbye.

Although the play capitalizes on Lehman’s strong performance, the steadfast character of Alec also translates well in Tichacek. Both are insistent on the inherent niceness of their characters, making the affair that much more poignant — according to middle-class British values, it is not a nice thing to do.

The Middlebury Community Players continues to put on strong amateur productions, drawing on local talent and building a diverse repertoire. Recent efforts include last year’s “The Music Man.” They will return to the Town Hall Theater April 22 through May 2 for “The Sound of Music.”