Ashley Shaw and Dominic North in Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell [Johan Persson]

INFLUENCED by the work of writer Patrick Hamilton, Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell, is a quietly mesmerising portrait of 1930s Soho, where lonely Londoners seek connection.

Bourne draws on characters from several of Hamilton’s novels, and introduces a gay couple into the mix. What unites them is the eponymous pub they frequent, tended by bar staff Ella (Hannah Kremer) and Bob (Dominic North).

Ella yearns for Bob to notice her, but he is infatuated with Jenny, a prostitute (Ashley Shaw); Sharp-suited Ernest (Edwin Ray) manipulates a lonely spinster (Michela Meazza), while George Harvey Bone (Alan Vincent) develops a disturbing fixation on an actress (Cordelia Braithwaite).

Mr Eccles (Danny Reubens) courts Ella; and a clandestine relationship between Albert (Glenn Graham) and Frank (Andrew Monaghan) struggles to take flight.

Bourne’s choreography captures longing, obsession, and isolation, exacerbated by the alcohol the characters use to drown their sorrows.

Swift transitions – from pub to teahouse to seedy hotel – are beautifully realised through Lez Brotherston’s versatile set, Paule Constable’s atmospheric lighting and Paul Groothuis’s sound design. Terry Davies’s score, interwoven with period songs playfully lip-synced by the characters, reflects their psychological states with occasional hints of menace.

Though episodic, rather than cohesive, The Midnight Bell immerses us in their world and the performances are top-notch.

Until June 21
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