Broken-hearted boozers and half-cut romantics are always welcome in The Midnight Bell. A pub in unglamorous 1930s London, it hosts dire assignations and unwise couplings in Matthew Bourne’s splendidly seedy dance drama.
First seen in 2021, the show is inspired by the anguished mid-century London novels of Patrick Hamilton: steeped in disappointment, failure and quantities of alcohol. These lonely Londoners can’t bear too much reality, so they drink. A glug to get you up in the morning, a slug to aid the afternoon, a snifter to ease into the evening. Then it’s down the pub and blotto all the way to bedtime. Secretaries and street walkers, gigolos and chorus boys – all knock it back until life becomes an acceptable blur.
