Kneehigh’s Tristan and Yseult was beyond doubt the best show I saw last year. Their Brief Encounter a few years back was also jaw-droppingly good. They are certainly in the top three independent companies in the UK so, with Rebecca, they had a lot to live up to.

The last time we saw the play in Cheltenham was with Nigel Havers at the helm and anyone who was expecting suave sophistication and long cigarette holders at Mandalay was in for a rude awakening.

Leslie Travers’ set was almost overwhelming, representing simultaneously the interior of the grand house with balconies, sweeping staircases and chandeliers and the wind-swept treacherous coast. It really had the feel of a small Cornish fishing village huddled around, and over, a rocky cove.

This was more Hammer Horror than Noel Coward. The opening sequence was an under-sea perspective of a lifeless body (Rebecca) floating beneath her wrecked boat. The boat came to rest centre stage and became the focal point of the production.

This is creative and original theatre at its very best but I felt at times they were being a bit arbitrary, sticking in bits because they seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps because Rebecca has such a strong linear, and possibly restrictive, dramatic storyline and is so familiar from previous incarnations, the company felt obliged to put in a few extra tangents to make it their own. This is only a very small niggle because I loved every moment of it. The live music was, as always, a feature of Kneehigh productions and there were a couple of nicely staged routines. We had sailors’ hornpipes, the Charleston and the recurring and haunting Sally Free and Easy by folk legend Cyril Tawney.

As usual with Kneehigh, Rebecca was a visual feast with effects, puns, in-jokes and cross references. The windows that were carried on and held up every time one of the characters had to look out of the house were really clever and I liked the captions that were deployed by cast members to describe the movement of time or place.

All the cast were excellent. Tristan Sturrock was a hands-on Maxim de Winter in a Richard Hannay sort of way and Emily Raymond was suitably strict as the hovering Mrs Danvers. The new Mrs de Winter is a bit of a thankless part, having to spend the first act being little more than feeble and apologetic, but Imogen Sage played it nicely and gained our sympathy. From her first entrance, dashing on to answer the phone as eager footman Robert, Katy Owen came close to stealing the show. She doubled as another boy, Ben, and was equally endearing in both parts, coming close to upstaging everyone with her almost Eric Morecambe self-conscious smiles to the audience. Diminutive in size perhaps, but not in talent or appeal.

Rebecca was everything one has come to expect from Kneehigh. And although some of the ideas didn’t quite work and they missed a few tricks – I would like to have heard more of the sea – this was theatre at its very best. Because of the small niggles I would only give 4½ stars but because its Kneehigh I give them ★★★★★     Michael Hasted     21/04/15 at Cheltenham