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

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It is not only a powerful drama but also a fine example of art being used as a platform for wartime propaganda,” said the amateur group’s chair Sue Clarke, who is at helm as director. 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 Lysander’s vulnerability meant it was unsuited to the army co-operation role for which it had been developed, so many were re-purposed to serve in the air-sea rescue role, locating downed pilots, marking their position with a smoke bomb and then dropping a dinghy to them. 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. In total 1786 Lysanders were manufactured, 225 of these in Canada. Today, about a dozen are still in existence including several airworthy examples. Although not as famous as other wartime RAF aircraft such as the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster, as a surreptitious transporter of spies and equipment the ’Lizzie’ nevertheless carried out vital undercover work that helped to shape the outcome of World War 2. Lysander key facts

The revival of Terence Rattigan's wartime romance will be Trevor Nunn's opening production as new artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and is timed to celebrate the centenary year of the playwright. Terence Rattigan's Flare Path succeeds in creating the extreme emotional landscape of people in times of war, where relationships are never certainly forever and each farewell might be the last. Written in 1941 and staged in 1942, the play was influenced by his experiences in the RAF as a tail-gunner in WW2 and uses a personal dilemma to explore the group ethos. Set in 1942 in the Lobby of the Falcon Hotel near a Bomber Command airbase on the Lincolnshire coast, actress Patricia has come to meet her boyish Flight Lieutenant husband Teddy. Having married Teddy on a whim, it is her intention to break off their marriage for her ex-lover and Hollywood star, Peter Kyle, whose affections for her are much more sensual than Teddy's trophy admiration for her. Flare Path was first performed in the West End at the Apollo Theatre in 1942. It is based on Rattigan’s own Bomber Command experiences when he served as a tail gunner during the Second World War. He later reworked Flare Path into a screenplay and in 1945 the re-titled The Way to the Stars starring Michael Redgrave was successfully released.Sheridan Smith, who starred as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre for its opening year, will join the cast as Doris alongside HBO's Rome star James Purefoy as Peter. Sienna Miller will star in the play as Patricia. The third couple are typical salt of the earth figures but well-drawn. Joe Armstrong is Dusty Miller, an honest rear gunner, while his narrow-minded wife Maudie may nag but, in Emma Handy's capable mitts, becomes a lovable comic figure. The revival runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 4 March 2011 and casting also includes Joe Armstrong as Dusty, Sarah Crowden as Mrs Oakes and Clive Woods as Swanson.

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. Patricia and Peter had a love affair before she met Teddy, but she left because Peter was not free to marry her. Patricia married Teddy after a "whirlwind wartime romance" while he was on a week's leave. She does not know her husband very well, and she was still in love with Peter when they wed. She reconnected with Peter in London and now plans to tell Teddy she is leaving him, but she is annoyed by Peter's unexpected arrival at the hotel. Peter tells her that his career is waning as he gets older and that he needs her. The choice between an admittedly sleazy actor with whom the lady is in love and an honest fellow for whom she feels sorry should be easy, were this not wartime 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." Nunn's production, using interpolated film of the flight take-off, beautifully captures both the sense of danger and its boozy, raucous aftermath. And the performances are impeccable. Sienna Miller looks suitably strained, tense and taut as the agonised Patricia and James Purefoy admirably conveys the sense of exclusion felt by the movie star caught up in wartime action. Sheridan Smith is also quite stunning as a former barmaid who now finds herself a countess because of her marriage to the Polish pilot: Smith never overdoes the brassiness and there is a heart-stopping moment when her features light up as she learns, from a letter, how much she was loved by her missing-in-action husband.

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Spencer, Charles, " Flare Path, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, review", The Telegraph, 14 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-14. I'm not really sure how to begin to answer this other than - Yes. All of them. My Mum, Dad and Sister. It's a nightmare.

It is a delight to see the return to the Southend stage of Elena Clements. after an absence of some years. She brings a quality of sweet intensity to all her roles, and that quality is especially apparent in her role here, as Doris, known to all as The Countess. Seemingly a bit of an airhead in the early portion of the play, she conjures up a monumental display of courage and dignity when confronted with personal tragedy. Another masterly performance from Elena Clements, which enshrines both the grief and the gutsiness of so many thousands of wartime widows. 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!Elliot Bigden has made the shift from glam leading man to possibly the most accomplished character actor on the Southend stage, and he here manages to melt himself into the personality of another rich character part. Sgt 'Dusty' Miller is the East End bus driver turned hotshot tail-gunner, whose phlegmatic approach to war and its danger provides an almost comical contrast to the upheavals evident elsewhere. He, too, is perfectly partnered by Poppy Horscraft, as his wife, Maudie, who doesn't seem to quite 'get' the war. Born in 1911 Terence Rattigan became one of Britain’s most important dramatists. His first play French Without Tears was a critical success and was soon followed by titles such as After the Dance, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, The Deep Blue Sea and Separate Tables. Several of his plays were adapted for film and television. He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1971 for services to the theatre. 2011 marks the centenary of the birth of Terence Rattigan. As well as Flare Path, celebrations for Rattigan’s centenary year will include several major revivals of his plays in London and beyond, including Cause Célèbre at The Old Vic, a new film of The Deep Blue Sea, a season of his films at the BFI, a special display at the British Library, BBC radio productions and the publication of new editions of his work. 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 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. Teddy's tail gunner Dusty Miller is awaiting his wife Maudie, who is late. Maudie only has a short time off from the laundry where she has had to work since the war began. She was bombed out of their home in the Blitz, but she says matter-of-factly: "...there's a war on, and things have got to be a bit different, and we've just got to get used to it – that's all." [4]

Set near an airfield in Lincolnshire in 1942, the year the play was written and first performed, Rattigan’s drama involves love and heartache between an actress, a young bomber pilot and a famous movie heartthrob. The revival runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 4 March 2011. Whilst home-grown talent such as Terence Rattigan deserve the incredible attention that his centenary is garnering this year (last year's After the Dance, this year's Cause Celebre and Flare Path to name but three), we would have liked to see something major in London to mark the occasion of Tennessee's birth. 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. It was 2005 and the great Roy Foster needed a few bodies to be in the crowd for the SSC’s summer production of the Recruiting Officer. I didn’t have any lines and I was told I would just be running around in a field chasing girls, which at the age of 10 was right up my street! A prototype ‘turret fighter’ version of the Lysander was produced, with a twin tail configuration and 4-gun Nash and Thompson power-operated tail end turret, but this variant did not go into production.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. During 1940 the Canadians sent all of their available Hawker Hurricanes abroad to fight in the Battle of Britain so some of their Lysanders were briefly pressed into service as home defence fighters. The cast includes Joe Armstrong (Dusty), Sarah Crowden (Mrs.Oakes), Sienna Miller (Patricia), James Purefoy (Peter), Sheridan Smith (Doris) and Clive Woods (Swanson). Final casting details will be announced shortly. Official Press Release: James Purefoy And Sheridan Smith Join Sienna Miller In Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path Directed By Trevor Nunn", 27 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-27.