The Deep Blue Sea (play)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Deep Blue Sea is a British stage play by Terence Rattigan from 1952. Rattigan based his story and characters in part on his secret relationship with Kenny Morgan, and the aftermath of the end of their relationship.[1][2] The play was first performed in London on 6 March 1952, directed by Frith Banbury, and won praise for actress Peggy Ashcroft, who co-starred with Kenneth More.[3] In the US, the Plymouth Theater staged the play in October 1952, with Margaret Sullavan.[4] The play with Sullavan subsequently transferred to Broadway, with its Broadway premiere on 5 November 1953, and running for 132 performances.
Prior to Rattigan's coding of his relationship with Morgan into the heterosexual relationship between Hester and Freddie, his first draft of the play more specifically treated the relationship between the lead characters as a homosexual relationship, and also hinted that the reason for the striking off of Miller, the ex-doctor in the play, from the medical register was Miller's homosexuality.[3][5]
Taking place over the course of one day, the play begins with the discovery of Hester Collyer in her flat by her neighbours, after Hester has failed in an attempt to take her own life by gassing herself. In flashback, sometime before, Hester left her husband, Sir William Collyer, a respectable High Court judge, for a semi-alcoholic former RAF pilot, Freddie Page. Their relationship was physical and passionate, but his ardour eventually cooled, leaving her emotionally stranded and desperate. Initially unemployed, Freddie eventually takes a post in South America. The aftershocks of her attempted suicide unravel even the remnants of this relationship. By the end of the day, Hester is brought to a hard decision to live, partly through the intercession of another resident of the tenement house, Mr. Miller, an ex-doctor who has been struck off the register for an undisclosed reason. These two outcasts find a curious kinship.
Revivals
Revivals of the play have included:
- 1971: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, with Isabel Dean[6]
- 1972: Nottingham, with Isabel Dean[7]
- 1977: Croydon and Cambridge, with Sheila Hancock and Clive Francis[8]
- 1977: Ten-week UK tour, with Honor Blackman[9]
- 1981: Greenwich Theatre, with Dorothy Tutin and Clive Francis[10]
- 1988: Haymarket Theatre, London: with Penelope Keith[11]
- 1993: Almeida Theatre, London, then Apollo Theatre, London, with Penelope Wilton and Linus Roache[12][13]
- 1997: Royal Exchange, Manchester with Susan Wooldridge. Directed by Marianne Elliott.
- 1998: Roundabout Theatre Company, New York City, with Blythe Danner, Edward Herrmann, and David Conrad[3]
- 2003: Richmond Theatre, London, with Harriet Walter, Neil Stacy, Robert Portal and Roger Lloyd-Pack[14]
- 2008: Six-week UK tour then Vaudeville Theatre, London, with Greta Scacchi, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, and Simon Williams[15]
- 2011: West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, with Maxine Peake and Lex Shrapnel[16]
- 2011: Chichester Festival Theatre, with Amanda Root, Anthony Calf and John Hopkins[17]
- 2016: National Theatre, London, with Helen McCrory, Peter Sullivan, and Tom Burke[18]
- 2019: Chichester Festival Theatre (Minerva Studio), with Nancy Carroll[19]
- 2024: Ustinov Studio, Bath, with Tamsin Greig[20]
