Alys, Always: A superbly disquieting psychological thriller

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Harriet Lane's debut novel, Alys, Always garnered a raft of favourable coverage from the professional reviewers when it was first published in hardback. She is a permanent member of the band for Anna Meredith and toured extensively in 2016, 2017 and 2018 across Europe and the US to promote the album Varmints (Scottish Album of the Year).

So many times I'd come across a cluster of words, a sentence or phrase, and I'd be amazed at her talent for expression. Great things were expected for this theatre, founded by Nick Hytner and Nick Starr after they departed from the National Theatre, which they had turned into the single most exciting theatrical address in London. I mean Frances succeeds by being manipulative, opportunistic and using her intelligence to deceive other people. Theatre includes leading roles at numerous regional theatres, including The Innocents, The Heiress and The Deep Blue Sea for the Royal Northampton; The Rivals, Dear Antoine and The Stepmother at Chichester Festival Theatre; and The Family Reunion, The Importance of Being Earnest and Uncle Vanya for Manchester Royal Exchange. For the Young Vic: Tree, The Jungle, The Inheritance (also New York and San Francisco), The Life of Galileo, and A Streetcar Named Desire.Alys, Always is one of those books that the less you know about the plot coming into it, the better your reading experience of it will be. Dance includes The Cellist for the Royal Ballet, plus new work with Wayne McGregor, Cathy Marston, Will Tuckett, Karole Armitage, Bern Ballet and Scottish Dance Theatre. See our Remarkables Archive for some that are no longer in print, but which we are happy to try to track down. It was as if the author couldn't make up her mind about the character, so she failed to elicit either our sympathy or our revulsion. Jon Clark’s lighting is fine, and Bob Crowley’s stage design, which takes in numerous settings – a dark country road at night, a newspaper arts desk, a north London flat, the grounds of a rich family’s estate – allows for impeccably handled scene changes.

It was difficult to understand her reasons for doing what she did - almost thought about not finishing it - but I persevered and it came together towards the end. She’s quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in. When Frances is driving back to London from visiting her parents one weekend, she is the first on the scene to a tragic road accident.At the start of this story, protagonist Frances comes upon a car turned on its side with the injured driver, a woman, trapped within. Alys, Always by Lucinda Coxon, based on the novel by Harriet Lane, is booking until the 30th of March at the Bridge Theatre. Later, when Alys's famous family

But from its tedious archetypes to its tired satire, Alys, Always makes for wasted opportunities across multiple fronts. Alys, Always is a muted experiment for Hytner, whose more recent productions – Julius Caesar, Allelujah! Television includes Holby City, Doctors, Capital, The Five, Chasing Shadows, Silk, The Dumping Ground, Casualty, Coronation Street, The Tower and The Bill. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions. Other theatre includes Evita and Into the Woods at Regent’s Park; Salome for Headlong; and Water and Silence for Filter.In consequence, Frances gains entrance into the heady world of the London literati, and this is just where Frances feels she was meant to be. She ends up being with the driver, Alys, when she dies, and a few weeks later the family ask to meet Frances so she can tell them about her last moments in person. She then stays with the woman, Alice Kite, giving her words of comfort and encouragement while awaiting arrival of the ambulance. But what emerges is a hard success-focused mindset, with Frances negotiating her path inward (with the Kytes) and subsequently upward. It’s a pleasure, then, to welcome this script from Lucinda Coxon, anchored by a central performance of power and confidence from Joanne Froggatt, best known as kindly maid Anna in Downton Abbey.

It's uneasy but intriguing reading thanks to the accurate illustration of her middle class characters. Alys, Always is a gripping modern thriller, adapted by Lucinda Coxon from the bestselling novel by Harriet Lane. She's quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in.One bitterly cold winter's evening driving back to London from her parents' home, she encounters a car that has skidded from the road and is witness to the last few minutes of the driver's life. The Kytes operate in a gilded world of casual privilege, which snaps open to offer Frances a tantalising glimpse of possibilities to which she has previously been denied access. The newspaper office is portrayed in parallel to this, with its own narcissistic, self-important and alcoholic cast of characters, in which Frances also vaults herself up the career ladder.