Theatre Review: The Midnight Bell at The Alhambra

IN homage to English novelist and playwright (1929’s Rope, 1938’s Gaslight) Patrick Hamilton, The Midnight Bell directly references one of his earliest books and takes inspiration from multiple works (Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, Hangover Square, The Slaves of Solitude and The Gorse Trilogy), dealing with changing attitudes to class and culture but choosing to set the action in the 1930s.

Seeking to be true to the atmosphere of Hamilton’s work and the years he spent closely observing the lifestyle of the working classes, Lez Brotherston’s set and costumes present an unglamorous cigarette stained, foggy, rather seedy Fitzrovia and Soho. Six interconnecting relationships weave together without telling the full story of any one novel, instead capturing their essence.

Written during the lengthy periods of Covid lockdown and isolation in 2021, Bourne’s characters are comprised of lonely souls yearning for connection and perhaps love, many played again by original cast. In honour of Hamilton’s apparently documented liberal attitude to homosexuality, Bourne includes touching scenes between a gay couple who also have to navigate the complications of one of them working for the police force.

Bourne uses the versatility of dance to suggest alcohol-soaked altered states and fantasies bought on by visits to the characters’ local, The Midnight Bell, portraying the inner lives of Hamilton’s characters, their unconventional and complex relationships and sexual impulses. Generous experimentation with lip-syncing gives access to Bourne’s characters’ thoughts and feelings, from “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes” (original vocals Ruth Etting) to “Maybe It’s Because I Love You Too Much” (courtesy of Al Bowlly).

Lez Brotherston’s loose suspended set reflects the impulsive behaviour of its cast, speedily switching from cinema to tearoom through a series of hanging signage and Paule Constable’s clever lighting. Paul Groothuis’s city soundscape is suitably atmospheric from amplified footsteps to clock chimes, traffic and bird calls. Successfully reflecting character emotion, original music from Terry Davies captures their sexual obsessions, loneliness, bittersweet longing and drunken abandon.

Less cohesive than previous New Adventures’ productions, The Midnight Bell’s haunting score has a surreal quality, notably ending on the line “there’s a man and he’s dreaming”. Threading together a series of set pieces with its titular location at its core, it tells of universal and timeless truths that still resonate today. Uncharacteristically relying heavily on lip-syncing, the show’s slightly underwhelming but strangely hypnotic, entrancing right up to its abrupt close.

The Midnight Bell showed at The Alhambra September 30-October 4, 2025.