High Noon ★★★★

This new play is the first ‘Western’ genre drama to be staged in the West End. Written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (whose work includes Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and A Star is Born) and directed by Thea Sharrock (acclaimed theatre and film director and former artistic director of the Southwark Playhouse), it tells the story of Marshal Will Kane’s efforts to gather a posse to help him face up to ruthless outlaw Frank Miller, who is due to arrive in town on the noon train.

Having married Quaker Amy Fowler (Denise Gough) in the opening scene, Kane (Billy Crudup) is about to retire and leave town to start a new life with his bride when news of Miller’s release from jail and impending arrival to seek revenge throws their plans into disarray. Kane decides to stay and face Miller and his gang, despite his wife’s pleas to leave.

What follows is a gripping 90 minutes, told in real-time, as the townsfolk who professed love and devotion to Kane at his wedding quickly abandon him out of fear or selfishness, while Amy, shaped by her own personal experience of violence and loss, prepares to leave him rather than betray her pacifist beliefs. As the big clock above the stage ticks towards noon, Kane prepares to face his fate alone, wrestling with isolation and betrayal from people he had previously protected.

Every excuse the townsfolk give for refusing to help is both plausible and uncomfortably familiar. The parallels drawn between what’s happening in the play and what’s currently unfolding on the broader world stage are too close to ignore, and they raise worrying questions about who would stand up and be counted if it were needed today. The observations of the characters about politicians (e.g., “They voted for a slogan” and, re. Miller, “People prefer straight talking; people would vote for him; they don’t care what’s at the end”) resonate with the current political climate all too closely and garnered wry, if slightly nervous, laughter from the audience.

Crudup is excellent as the increasingly isolated and conflicted Kane. It’s a heavy role (both emotionally and content-wise), but his energy and the passion he gave to the character of Kane didn’t waver. Gough feels somehow underused until the final denouement, even though this version of her character is much stronger than the 1950s film version. But after People, Places, Things, she perhaps deserves something a little less heavygoing.

Also worthy of mention are the two vital “supporting” roles. Rosa Salazar is excellent as Helen Ramirez, the bar owner whose acerbic insights into town life are vital to helping the audience understand how the town works. While Billy Howle (as Harvey Pell, Kane’s impulsive young deputy) manages to soften his character’s moral weakness with a desire to do better, becoming a vivid embodiment of the wider town’s moral conflict.

The rest of the cast work together brilliantly as an ensemble surrounding the two leads, with most playing multiple characters to give the play a feeling of scale that isn’t always possible in a smaller theatre.

As for the staging, designer Tim Hatley wisely keeps it simple. No scenery to speak of, just movable wooden-slatted panels that are reconfigured to create each setting, a handful of simple wooden props (tables, chairs, a carriage) in keeping with simpler times, a few items (bags, guns) and then let the actors and the audience’s imagination do the rest. Much more sensible than trying to emulate the wide-open plains of the Wild West in a tiny Victorian theatre. The arrival of the train, however, does deserve special mention. Effective, atmospheric, and it changes the tone completely! And so simply done.

The one slightly jarring thing in the whole piece was the occasional character (mostly Amy) breaking into song. It caused confusion at the start, when opening with a song felt like it was announcing itself as a musical (it’s not!). And Amy’s sporadic singing of a single line from Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire didn’t really add anything. That said, Springsteen’s music suited the ambience, and Land of Hopes and Dreams felt like a fitting song to end on.

Back in the day, the original film of High Noon was one of cinema’s greatest Westerns. It has translated to the stage well, although it will likely divide opinion as it’s lost some of its subtlety and seeks to ram its message home a little hard on occasions. It’s thought-provoking for all that and seems to have flown under the radar with little fanfare thus far in its run, meaning there are still tickets available….