45 Years

adapted by Hannah Patterson from Andrew Haigh's film

seen at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester on 4 July 2026

Prasanna Puwanarajah directs Gabriel Byrne as Geoff, Geraldine James as Kate and Gillian Bevan as Lena in Hannah Patterson's adaptation of the film 45 Years which was written and directed by Andrew Haigh and released in 2015 (Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling played the couple while Geraldine James played Lena).

Geoff and Kate are about to celebrate their forty-fifth wedding anniversary, their ruby wedding celebrations having been cancelled due to Geoff's ill-health at the time. Theirs seems to be a marriage of long contentment and companionship, but a letter sent to Geoff throws an unexpected light on his past. He had told Kate of the girlfriend he had had before they met, and that she had died in a climbing accident when they were holidaying in the Alps, but there were evidently things that he had not said, which Kate now finds very painful to consider.

Over the course of the few days between the arrival of the letter and the celebratory party Kate must deal with catering arrangements and the well-meaning chatter of her friend Lena, all the while trying to come to terms with her new awareness of her husband's past, and her lack of certainty about what he might or might not have inadvertently or deliberately told her. In the meantime Geoff too has been knocked off balance by the news in the letter, and he struggles with his natural reticence, and perhaps his failing memory, to realise the pain he has caused.

The play is set solely in various rooms in their house with only the most minimal indication of which room the couple are in (set designed by James Cotterill); there is a clever indication of when Kate is in the loft. Indications that the house may be a bit rundown with age and their long residence perhaps mirror the fragility of Kate's and Geoff's relationship - there are persistent leaks from the rain outside, and a troublesome ballcock which Geoff eventually repairs. Only right at the end are we in the hall where the long-planned party takes place.

Conversation is mostly measured and muted, and the pattern of very short scenes of dialogue punctured by blackouts, very reminiscent of fades or scene-cuttings in film, is at first rather disconcerting, but the overall effect is to emphasise how much goes unspoken in apparently innocuous dialogue, and how fatally difficult it becomes to articulate important things after a lifetime of not doing so. Outbursts of temper never lead to longwinded or tearful confessions. The cumulative effect of all this reticence is etched on Kate's face as she dances with Geoff in the village hall - it is utterly unclear what she will do next, while Geoff appears to think that he has made things right by publicly declaring his love for his wife.

Geraldine James and Gabriel Byrne handle this low-key approach with great skill, though there is a slight danger that at times they speak too quietly. One soon realises how verbose many dramas are on stage and screen in comparison to this stripped back but still very revealing dialogue, which, in this stage version, is perfectly matched by the austere visual style.