Highland stations to host new Brief Encounter
Play to pay tribute to 1945 film in tearooms along line to Mallaig
It was the classic romantic drama about a chance meeting in a busy station tearoom that now evokes a bygone railway age.
But the 1940s steam era of Brief Encounter is to be reimagined next week with a homage to the David Lean film being performed at stations in the Highlands.
A new play, Brief Encounters on the West Highland Line, will be put on at Glenfinnan, Rannoch, Arisaig and Corrour, which all lie on the route between Glasgow and Mallaig.
In an echo of where Celia Johnson met Trevor Howard in the film, the play will be staged in the tearoom at Rannoch and the Station House in at Corrour.
The 50-minute production’s tour starts on Tuesday at the Prince’s House Hotel in Glenfinnan, and will also take in the Astley Hall in Arisaig.
Highland performing arts group the Iron Road Collective has taken inspiration from the 1945 film, much of which was filmed at Carnforth Sta- tion on the West Coast main line in Lancashire.
The play is said to “bring together themes of fleeting relationships, seasonal employment and isolation in the West Highlands”.
Performers include locals such as Lochaber High School pupil Lewis Macrae, who is from Glenfinnan.
Hege Hernes, of the West Highland Community Rail Partnership, which is putting on the shows, said: “We commissioned this play to celebrate the many station buildings along the West Highland Line that have found exciting new uses over the last couple of decades.
“Working with the many lineside tearooms and restaurants has been great.
“We have been met with enthusiasm everywhere and are looking forward to a week of unique community events at our local railway stations.”
The show, which includes a meal, has been funded by the Scotrail Foundation Cultural and Arts Fund and the National Lottery’s Big Lottery Fund.
Scotrail’s head of economic and community development James Ledgerwood said: “This modern adaptation of the classic film is one that’s not to be missed and we’re really looking forward to our stations being used as the setting.
“The fund is just one of the ways we support communities and their projects.”
Tearooms and bars have enjoyed a renaissance on Scotland’s railways, with around 50 now established at stations. Their development has been fuelled by funding from bodies such as the Railway Heritage Trust – which helped restore Carnforth Station – as part of the restoration of historicallyimportant buildings.