A Room with a View brings a sweeping clash of social and cultural mores into scrutiny, delivered with a dash of humour, in an exquisite re-imagining at the Belvoir St Theatre.
The original work was a 1908 novel by English writer E M Forster, a closeted novelist whose career spanned the Edwardian era (in which this story is set) to 1970, often dealing with themes of social tension and personal freedom.
After many past adaptations for the stage, Grace Chapple’s recent reworking of the text has now hit the stage, realised with skilful direction by Hannah Goodwin and a cast of eight actors who breathe life into this literary gem.
The play opens in the early 1900s in Florence, where Miss Lucy Honeychurch (Nathalie Morris) and her chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett (Hayley McElhinney), are on a Grand Tour of Florence, when they are given a room with no view of the Arno at the Pensione Bertolini.
On hearing of their plight, fellow travellers Mr Emerson (Patrick Williams) and his son George (Luke Wiltshire), have a room with a view and offer to swap.
Miss Charlotte, fearing an obligation to someone from a lower class, at first refuses, but relents when another guest, the Anglican priest Mr Beebe (Tom Conroy), persuades her to accept.
Poking fun at the British abroad, the hilarious scene of tourists walking through ancient art with their heads buried in their Baedeker Guides could also be a comment on the modern habit of people being glued to their devices. Also, the group is introduced to Miss Eleanor Lavish (Kate Atkinson), a gossipy novelist.
Another humorous scene takes place on a trip to the countryside, where language disparity between the tourist and their native guide (Tomáš Kantor) takes on multiple meanings.
Despite having feelings for the young and virile George, Lucy’s first kiss is interrupted by Charlotte, and she retreats. The next day Lucy and Charlotte leave for Rome, without saying goodbyes to the Emersons.
In Rome they meet up with Cecil Vyse (Charles Wu), a sophisticated and snobbish Londoner who they know from England. He proposes twice to Lucy, with her refusing both times.
Back in Surrey, he proposes to Lucy again, and this time she accepts, just before Mr Beebe announces that the Emersons have leased a local villa.
For those unfamiliar with the story, George and Lucy’s fate means the breaking of a lot of social and cultural conventions of the day, and their future is in their hands alone.
Breaking from Forster’s stilted Edwardian language, Goodwin employs mime in a number of scenes, all executed to great effect. The tennis match is a tour de force in timing, underscored by Conroy’s minimal piano notes.
A brilliant realisation of the swimming scene ends as a hilarious and somewhat ambiguous gay and nude romp in which Tom Conroy’s Mr Beebe shows that he has feelings for more than the Lord, and Tomáš Kantor’s Freddie bares more than his soul.
It is also in the second half that Lucy bares her innermost character, and the scenes between her and George become touching, with the audience on tenterhooks as to where or not they will make it as a couple.
We also see once again the controlling nature of Cecil as he commands her to play Bach on the piano, when she defiantly chooses to a Schubert recital.
The Emersons, while socially inferior to the Surrey set, represent the voices of reason against repression, and both of their characters bring this to the fore in their dialogue, which played against that of Cecil, who belongs to another class and age.
Even the uptight and controlling Charlotte has a slight melting of her views, while Cecil is bound by tradition to accept the result.
Hannah Goodwin has chosen pace and wit to bring this somewhat overlong piece to life, and does so with confidence. Where the first part drags somewhat, all is made up in the cracking developments revealed in the second half.
Zoe Atkinson’s set is simple, and serves multiple purposes as it transforms elegantly from the pensione in Florence to the country house in Surrey. Likewise, her costumes carry the period brilliantly, without being over wrought.
Composer Grace Ferguson colours the production well with simple and effective jazz intros to the various scenes, while Amelia Lever-Davidson’s lighting transforms the set as it changes time and place.
A Room with a View is an elegant adaptation of a much loved novel, and one that is very much for these times.
A Room with a View
Upstairs Theatre – Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills
Performance: Thursday 8 October 2026
Season continues to 1 November 2026
Information and Bookings: www.belvoir.com.au
Following the Sydney season, A Room with a View will play at the Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, from 14 November – 19 December, as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2026 season.
Images: Charles Wu and Nathalie Morris – photo by Brett Boardman | Hayley McElhinney, Nathalie Morris and Tom Conroy – photo by Brett Boardman | Kate Atkinson – photo by Brett Boardman | Tom Conroy – photo by Brett Boardman | Nathalie Morris and Patrick Williams – photo by Brett Boardman
Review: John Moyle