Review: Posting Letters to the Moon, Ustinov Studio, Bath

Oh, what a lovely, love-filled, heartwarming evening you will have with Posting Letters To The Moon. Opening night at Bath’s Ustinov Studio (Theatre Royal) looked like a full house for this charming legacy of a show.

But where to start? You could come into this piece through so many different doors. A Brief Encounter fan? An Archers addict? Maybe you’re a soul who loves the “letters from” format, or even “an audience with-“? Perhaps you’re an incurable ’39-’45 nostalgiac?

Whichever door works for you, this space is as welcoming and nourishing as you could possibly want. Huge congrats to Lucy Fleming and Simon Williams – and their family – for sharing these letters in such a generous way.

Posting Letters… is – put deceptively simply – a reading of the letters between a separated husband and wife during the Second World War. “The husband” is Peter Fleming, who later became a well-known travel writer (and whose brother was Ian Fleming, James Bond author). “The wife” is Celia Johnson, star of stage and screen, perhaps most well known for the 1945 David Lean/Noel Coward film, Brief Encounter, for which she won an Oscar nomination. And the readers? Their daughter, actor Lucy Fleming (most recently, Miranda Elliott in The Archers) and her husband, Simon Williams (ditto, Justin Elliott, and ditto again).

The letters are full of treasures galore, not least the deep love and respect that Peter and Celia have for each another. But you might be surprised to hear Celia discover the delights of surfing in Cornwall, or to hear that she feels her wartime contribution of “making people laugh and cry at the movies” is inadequate. She even wonders whether she will be any good in Brief Encounter. There are glorious cameos of everyday life, from the local comedy actor who works alongside her on the farm, to attacks of the giggles with Celia’s friends, Joyce Grenfell and Peggy Ashcroft.

Of course, war is war. This evening served extraordinarily well to remind me of the astounding strength of human resilience in the face of appalling adversities. Peter and Celia might spend a year apart at a time. They had a baby, born just before the outbreak of the war. Friends and family were killed. Like any lone parent, Johnson struggled with the dilemma of whether to accept jobs that would take her away from her son. Celia observes at one point that Peter has been away more than home in all the time they have known each other.

But there is no self-pity. No entitlement. No whingeing. These letters burst bright with compassion. They make light of their hardships, always aware of the other’s very different plight (while Celia was in Oxfordshire and working as an actor, Peter was in Arnhem, Burma and India). They paint pictures for one another, which their daughter and her husband have now – very generously, in every sense – brought into the light to share with us.

A great deal of the delight of is in Fleming and Williams’ confidence to ignore the fourth wall – with Williams in particular making the audience feel we’re all part of a cosy natter. If you’re lucky, you might get a night when his Trump impression sneaks out…

After Bath, they’re off to Wimborne’s Tivoli, Guildford, Chipping Norton, Malvern and Devizes. So don’t miss this. It is a genuine treasure.

Posting Letters to the Moon continues at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday, January 20, then tours across the region. For more info, visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk/page/3029/Posting-Letters-to-the-Moon/1588 and www.postingletterstothemoon.com

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