Going to see this production was really the triumph of hope over experience. How can Lawrence's intense novel be condensed into an hour and a quarter with a cast of six? It can't, not without a great deal of wordy narration, and this Oxford University company's production had plenty of that.
Short scenes separated by narration break up the flow of a piece and kill any tension built up beforehand, and imposing a stop/start pattern on the play leads to a flat dynamic. This problem was exacerbated here by the fact that both the writing and the direction lacked variety of pace and intensity. There was none of the blazing emotion which characterises Lawrence: it was all quite genteel and rather slow.