Daphne du Maurier’s 1971 story Don’t Look Now opens at the Venice restaurant table of a holidaying couple, John and Laura, who have brought their grief away with them. Nicolas Roeg’s film adaptation a couple of years later added a prologue in which we actually witness the recent loss of their younger child, Christine, in a drowning accident. It is a horribly drawn-out scene, masterfully edited, and this new production directed by Douglas Rintoul opens by paying homage, while keeping the story’s original cause of death as meningitis.
With the house lights up, Christine comes out to play on a reflective stage and darkness slowly descends. Against Daniel Denton’s rippling, misty video design, her blue dress seems to foreshadow a watery death. The next time we see her, John is cradling her lifeless body.
