A Room With a View

With its satirical wit, observant eye, and huge affection for its characters, E M Forster's novel A Room With a View is a romantic comedy with emotional intelligence, a-turn-of-the-century When Harry Met Sally, set in sun-lit Italy and rural England. Featuring animated classical art of breath-taking Italian landscapes and cameo video appearancesby celebrity actors, this is immersive theatre like you’ve never experienced it before.

Lucy Honeychurch, a naive girl filled with Edwardian repression, arrives at the Pension Bertolini in Italy with her even more prim cousin, Charlotte, to discover they have no view of the River Arno from their rooms. Among the guests at dinner are the Emersons, a father and his son, George, a handsome, brooding and mostly silent young man.

When Emerson Senior suggests that he and George swap rooms with the ladies, it sets of a train of events that will see two young people transformed: Lucy to aspirited and independent young woman open to the possibility of her own desires; and George to a passionate young man whose love gives him meaning. Many obstacles willstand in the way of our star-crossed lovers, not least Lucy's fiance back in England, the wealthy, well-connected, unbearably pompous Cecil.

By turns funny and moving, romantic and satirical,  former BBC producer Kate McAll's adaptation is a work of optimism about the enduring power of love. It's the perfect antidote to our times.