Flare Path (The Rattigan Collection) (NHB Modern Plays)

Product Information

Also present at the hotel are the proprietor, Mrs. Oakes; Percy, a young waiter who is interested in RAF operations; and an airman named Corporal Wiggy Jones. She's so conflicted," says Miller, chomping her food. "She's worrying about her husband, she's in love with this other man. There's all this stuff bubbling underneath – but on the surface, she's not really showing it." She looks anxious. "It's probably the most complicated part I've ever played." So it doesn't come naturally, all that wartime stiff upper lip? "Absolutely not! That's probably something I need a little bit more of in my life." Most interest will inevitably centre on society beauty Sienna Miller making a rare foray on to a West End stage. The screen star, who is at least as well-known for her lifestyle as her performances, acquits herself capably. Not only did Miller take the fight to the paparazzi, she turned the tables. She grins. "I was secretly filming [them] on cameras that looked like lighters, all covert and exciting. It was funny, gathering evidence."

The arrival of a Hollywood star, Peter Kyle, and the outcome of the night raid on Germany throw up conflicts of love and duty. The ‘special duty’ Lysander pilots had to navigate by the light of the moon, using just a map and compass. Usually they were looking for an improvised landing strip in a field marked out with flame torches by an SoE agent or the French Resistance, although they were advised not to rely purely on spotting these lights. Once on the ground in enemy held-territory, a fast turnaround was imperative to evade German patrols. I'm a big fan of Harold Pinter's work, I’d love to do either of the men in The Dumb Waiter,Ashton in The Caretakeror Lenny in the Homecoming. Gore-Langton, Robert, "Why Rattigan Is All the Rage Again", Daily Express, 17 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-22.tempted to nod off in parts...the pace limps along like a battle-battered Wellington bomber flying on one engine." Flare Path, the first play of Sir Trevor Nunn's tenure at the Haymarket Theatre, will rouse its audience as well as reminding them of the bravery of a group of pilots who kept our grandparents safe. As such, the theatre's 900 seats are likely to be filled every night of the run. a b Billington, Michael, " Flare Path – review", The Guardian, 14 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-14. The skipper’s wife Patricia, an actress, is harbouring a guilty secret. The fun-loving Countess, wife of a Polish flying officer, faces an uncertain future. Maudie, the air gunner’s wife, like so many millions of people, has had her settled domestic life turned upside down by the war. Much Hadham Drama Group is putting on Terence Rattigan's Flare Path It is the second play set during the Second World War that Much Hadham Drama Group has put on in the space of 18 months following its well-received production of Goodnight Mister Tom in May 2022.

Marlowe, Sam, " Flare Path, Theatre Royal Haymarket", The Arts Desk, 14 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-14. In a play abounding with fine character studies, humour, suspense and pathos, Compton Players missed few opportunities in their production of Flare Path by Terrence Rattigan, at the new Village Hall on two nights last week. Their twelfth show was handled by a new producer, Mr F R Meakins.The play centres round three airmen, their wives and an American actor who are staying at an hotel near the aerodrome.

Broadcast

SSC Director, Malcolm Toll, once asked me to learn to juggle for his production of King Lear. I was hopeless, and after he saw my attempt it was cut. Whilst being a professional actor the majority of the auditions I got was based on me being able to play the piano so we’ll go with that one instead! This love triangle is contrasted with the genuinely strong marriage between barmaid Doris, and the aristocratic Polish pilot officer Count Skriczcvinsky. But this bond seems doomed in a different way, since his life expectations are dwindling by the hour. Sienna Miller may be the box-office draw, but Trevor Nunn's magnificent revival of Terence Rattigan's 1942 play is an ensemble achievement. And that seems appropriate for a play that is a tribute to the collective spirit of wartime bomber crews and their partners. Given the circumstances, you'd hardly expect a debate about the morality of the air offensive: what the play provides, with Rattigan's characteristic flair for understatement, is a deeply moving portrait of people at war.

Doris waits for her husband Count Skriczevinsky, a Polish pilot serving with the RAF. His wife and son were killed by the Nazis, and he came to Britain, despite his poor command of the English language, to join the war against Germany. Doris met him while working as a barmaid, and though she is now his Countess, she worries about what will happen when the war is over and he is able to return to Poland. The revival of Flare Path was well received by a number of critics. Paul Taylor of The Independent called it a "richly entertaining and beautifully judged revival of this theatrical rarity." [24] According to Charles Spencer of The Telegraph, "Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path (1942), rarely ranked in the top drawer of his plays, emerges in Trevor Nunn’s superb production as a three-handkerchief weepie that somehow manages to be both profoundly moving and wonderfully funny." [25] Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "...Trevor Nunn uses Rattigan's insightful characterizations to create a multilayered view of war and what it does to people." [26] Michael Billington of The Guardian said it was "... a tribute to the collective spirit of wartime bomber crews and their partners. Given the circumstances, you'd hardly expect a debate about the morality of the air offensive: what the play provides, with Rattigan's characteristic flair for understatement, is a deeply moving portrait of people at war." [27] Flare Path is to be Nunn's first production as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company, following Jonathan Kent and Sean Mathias in the role. Superb production as a three-handkerchief weepie that somehow manages to be both profoundly moving and wonderfully funny."

Chapters

Spencer, Charles, " Flare Path, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, review", The Telegraph, 14 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-14. Henry Hitchings of the London Evening Standard noted that the play might seem dated, but said "...there's no mistaking Rattigan's talent for depicting repressed emotion and tragicomic acts of concealment. Crucially, as in most of his writing, there is a gulf between what the characters say and the true feelings they are either unable or unwilling to express." [28] Billington wrote, "...it is precisely that embarrassed English emotional hesitancy that makes this play so overwhelmingly moving." [27] Sam Marlowe of The Arts Desk called it "...a shattering ensemble work, in which every detail glows with truth, compassion and humanity, and where every seemingly ordinary second of life in an existence hemmed in by the ever-present threat of death is charged with a quiet intensity." [29] Flare Path is directed by Justin Audibert and will be touring Bath, Malvern, Exeter, Cambridge, Salisbury, Winchester, Ipswich, Coventry, Liverpool, Southend and Guildford. The play is set in a hotel in Lincolnshire, situated close to an RAF airfield. From here, Wellington bombers set off on perilous nightly runs over Germany. Some are shot up by roaming 'bandits', even before they can leave the airfield. The flare path of the title, visible from the hotel's picture-window, is the double-line of lights illuminating the take-off and landing strip, It is both a source of refuge and a place of peril. Airmen's wives, staying in the hotel, can only watch and listen, pray and hope. The action of the play is laced with off-stage explosions and news of casualties. In its own way, this place is a frontline of World War Two. The occasional romanticism is counterbalanced by Rattigan's genius for barely expressed emotion," agrees our own Michael Billington. "A simple exchange of goodbyes between a tail-gunner and his wife, as he leaves for a raid, brings a lump to the throat." And it does even more to Charles Spencer. "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now," he writes. "Trevor Nunn's superb production [is] a three-handkerchief weepie that somehow manages to be both profoundly moving and wonderfully funny."

The knowledge that Rattigan’s own lover had just left him before Flare Path opened gives the triangle an added interest. The play was directed by Anthony Asquith with whom Rattigan had worked on the propaganda film The Day Will Dawn with whom he would work again in 1945 in The Way to the Stars, the definitive British air war film starring John Mills and Michael Redgrave and an exemplary example of Rattigan’s famous understatement.

You might also like

Tennessee Williams: The silent centenary We don't like to moan (much) but where are all the London productions celebrating the late, great Tennessee Williams? It was in the service of the Special Operations Executive (SoE) that the Lysander finally found its ‘raison d’etre’.