The Deep Blue Sea

 

A Terence Rattigan play from 1952 doesn’t sound that appealing until you add Tamsin Greig into the mix and it suddenly became a must.  Surprisingly, although  it is pretty much of its time, I found it more modern than some of the kitchen sink dramas that pretty much swept Rattigan and his types of play away into history, for a while at least.

A story about a woman who loves her younger lover too much and her husband not enough, and with neither of them loving her the way she wants to be loved, this is a pretty sad play, but despite opening with Hester’s suicide attempt, it’s also pretty funny, and not always in a bleak way! I read that there are some parallels with Rattigans own life where an ex lover killed themselves after leaving him for another man.  That's pretty sad in itself, and the play is very thoughtful about the impact of not being loved enough or as you wish to be loved, something that affects all of the main characters.

Tamsin Greig is fantastic in this, both heartbreaking and very funny as she carefully reveals the inner torment that Hester is experiencing, subtly being both devastated and dryly witty, getting lots of laughs out of us, particularly at the patronising way she is treated by most of the people in her life.  Finbar Lynch as Mr Miller stood out too as the struck off doctor being an honest voice of conscience and the one person to see her as she really is. And Selina Cadell does a perfect comic turn as that staple of mid 20th century comedy, the busybodyish but caring landlady. 

In the queue for the loo at the interval one person was saying that they wanted Freddie (Hadley Fraser)  to be more irresistible, so we could understand why she leaves her husband (Nicholas Farrell) for him, but I thought the point was that Hester is clear eyed about his faults and it makes no difference to how much she loves him. 

It’s not sold out and so I got a cheap on the day ticket with a little bit of a restricted view. As it wasn't sold out there was a little shuffle in the darkness as we all moved forward to fill the empty seats.  It's well staged though, with the key action staying pretty central, so restricted view doesn't make too much difference although I think sitting to the left of the stage gives a slightly better view of Greig's performance.

It's a shame it isn't playing to full houses, as this is a play that has still got a lot to say, despite there no longer being the same shame and social pressures to maintain bad relationships.  Yes this is sad, but there is also a flicker of hope there too, and lots to enjoy on the way.  Honestly it’s worth seeing for Tamsin Greig alone.