Atonement

“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.” Next to grace the Chichester Festival Theatre is the world première stage adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. After bringing the story to the big screen in 2007 (starring Saoirse Ronan as the young Briony Tallis, James McAvoy as Robbie Turner & Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis), Christopher Hampton now turns his hand to transferring to the theatre; this production is directed by Adam Penford and stars Isabella Dempster, Jasper Talbot & Miriam Petche. Summer 1935. It’s blistering hot at the Tallis family’s country estate as they await the return of eldest son Leon – his youngest sister Briony is attempting to put on a play to mark the occasion, but her cousins are more interested in the swimming pool than acting. Meanwhile, tensions are rising between her older sister Cecilia and the housekeeper’s son Robbie; the pair had once been close friends, but relations have become fraught – it takes an…