Review: Port City Signature, The Hope Theatre

Some people will relate to the experience of Newcomer (Meg Clarke) in accidently getting off a train at the wrong station. Many will recognise seeking out a nearby pub as the best of limited options when faced with a long wait for your next train. Hopefully though very few will experience the dilemma of being offered a bag of money to commit murder whilst you wait.

The fact that characters never refer to each other by name is a clue that Port City Signature follows the style and tropes of a noir thriller, something it replicates very effectively. Writer Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller has crafted characters that are recognisably the cynical noir archetypes, and the cast play up these behaviours very well.  Newcomer is the (perhaps not so) innocent bystander, who receives the alarming offer from the charismatic anti-hero Regular (Paddy Echlin) and steely femme-fatale Lady (Katherine Lea) to kill the menacing gangster (self-titled) Sheriff (David Carter). 

Co-Directors Brimmer-Beller and Phoebe Rowell John keep up a constantly escalating tension as the cast switch from easy humour to making offers and threats both subtle and overt.  Newcomer is assured that whatever her choice, she can be on the next train in 30 minutes. As this would end the show long before the advertised run time, complications are anticipated and are duly delivered. There are twists both expected and surprising, including a fake out ending which could have been more impactfully used as the real ending.

The stage is suitably set as the coastal pub, with bar, tables and chairs and featuring fishing netting hanging up. As Newcomer found an absence of station name signs, she regularly asks “where is here?”, which can also be applied to the production choices. Designer Hannah Williams has very well replicated the non-time specific, vaguely period, quality of noir where the story could also take place anywhere. The Country music playing as the audience enters the theatre suggests an American setting, which is soon dispelled by the English accents and the British currency being offered. The costuming evokes an 80’s vibe, in the style of shirt, suits and battered leather jacket, as do the near identical moustaches of Echlin and Carter.  Newcomer never questions being offered use of the pubs anachronistic outdoor telephone, nor does anyone seem to have the option to use a mobile phone to communicate or look up train schedules. It is a good touch that the atmospheric sounds of ocean waves are heard whenever someone steps outside to use the phone, which are cut off when they re-enter the pub.  Sameer Aggarwal uses the stage lighting to good effect to draw the focus back and forth from the main pub setting to the outdoor phone setting.

Part of the enjoyment of watching any entertainment comes from trying to anticipate the likely plot points and being satisfied or surprised as events unfold.  You don’t need to be overly familiar with the specific noir tropes to find the story enjoyably thrilling and the acting engaging.

Written by: Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller
Co-Directed by: Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller and Phoebe Rowell John
Design by: Hannah Williams
Stage Managed by: Emma Langan
Lighting by: Sameer Aggarwal
Produced by: Black Back Productions

Port City SIgnature plays at The Hope Theatre until 14 October. Further information and tickets available here.