THEATRE REVIEW 2025
flare path
tower THEATRE
WRITER: Terrance Rattigan
DIRECTOR: Dom Ward
Cast:
Ciara Gaughan
Ed Reeve
Arthur O’Kelly
Oran Lynch
Dale Robertson
David Miller
Lola Jones
Sarah Ellis Jones
David Hankinson
Percy: Conrad O’Callaghan
Tower Theatre, London
Till 10th May, 2025
May, 4, 2024
★★★★
Arriving one evening at a coastal hotel, movie star Peter Kyle, Ed Reeve, is determined to win over his lover Patricia Graham, Ciara Gaughan, who has just left the West End to spend time with her husband, Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham, Arthur O’Kelly, before returning to London to start work on a new production. Though Teddy is eager for Patricia to be reunited with her acting partner, Patricia is less than enthusiastic to see Peter. With tensions between Patricia and Peter growing, the reality of being in the throngs of war begins to set in. When Teddy, Sergeant David 'Dusty' Miller, David Miller, and Polish Flying Officer Count Skriczevinsky, Dale Robertson, prepare to head out on a secret mission, Countess Skriczevinsky, Oran Lynch, Maudie Miller, Lola Jones, and Patricia are left behind to dutifully await their husbands' return.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Front-page newspapers and grainy black-and-white newsreels will inform the smartphone generation how important this anniversary is. May 8th, 1945, was for millions of people the end of WW2, but for many men, women, and their families, the end of the war brought with it its own perilous uncertainty.
British playwright Terrance Rattigan first staged Flare Path in 1942, having started to write it whilst serving in Africa. Rattigan’s writing is engaging, light but filled with substance and honesty. Having a piece of theatre that was written by a playwright on active duty in the RAF adds an almost anthropological dynamic to the play's themes and characters. It offers the type of authenticity that the many post-war productions would lack. Rattigan is seemingly searching to understand these deeply rooted social dynamics of British society, and with Flare Path the playwright delicately unpacks these ideas within the comical narrative of these two lovers.
It would be wrong to assume that the core of Flare Path is the romantic triangle, even if this does dominate Rattigan's text. Patricia, Peter, and Teddy face a reality that, for people from within their social class, would have all been too common. One turns a ‘blind eye’ to the sexual escapades of one's wife or husband, keeping that proverbial stiff upper lip and all. Flare Path is really about three couples, the Millers, the Grahams and the Skriczevinskys. As united as the couples are during the war, there is an underlying uncertainty over what their respective positions may be in the post-war world.
Rattigan beautifully brings these three sets of couples together – the working-class Millers, the professional Grahams, and the noble Skriczevinskys mix well together in Mrs Oakes, Sarah Ellis Jones, lounge, but I couldn’t help feel how difficult it would be for them to go back to their pre-war lives. The war years did, for millions of people across the UK, offer mobility, freedoms, opportunities, and a blurring of the social hierarchy that dominates British life. Rattigan alludes to this a few times; Dusty refers to Teddy as sir, and there is a snide conversation held behind the Countess’s back.
"In these big scenes Ward’s direction is flawless, and he’s able to draw out the emotion that he needs from his actors to make their characters realistic and empathetic."
This drama between the guests reflects how the audiences would have seen each of the couples and their status. The Millers are your down-to-earth, typical working-class Southerners. No airs or graces, plain speaking, and through the war, they’ve been given a new, albeit temporary, social position. The way Rattigan has written Maudie and Dusty, played with gusto by Miller and Jones, allows them to carry a lot of the comedy and build a closer, authentic connection with the audience. Dusty and Maudie represent the hundreds of thousands of young working people finding their lives being shaped by the ongoing war.
With Patricia, Teddy and Peter, the dynamic is more complex. It seems like the war is a subplot to their lives. The social position they enjoy offers them a strange type of detachment from what is happening around them, affording Patricia and Peter at least the freedom to play out their affair. Reeve, Gaughan, and O’Kelly bring a realism to their respective parts that keeps you engaged and excels in exploring the underlying tensions within Rattigan's text. O’Kelly is especially effective as Teddy, who seems to have unpacked some of the possible hidden messages with Rattigan’s text that allows him to bring forth a troubled, freighted, and, at times, manipulative character. I feel Teddy knows all along about the affair between his wife and Peter. As Patricia and Teddy have only been married a year, married during wartime and with Teddy being an enlisted officer, any road to a ‘normal’ marriage was going to be impossible. Add the fact that his wife is an actress of some note; it's inevitable that cracks in their relationship would begin to show, pushing her into the arms of another. Teddy also shows no sign of jealousy and is overly eager to embrace Peter when he arrives unexpectedly at their hotel. This arrival becomes a godsend in a way for Teddy, as it forces his Patricia to make a decision: him or Peter.
The extent of Teddy’s possible manipulation comes during a scene between Patricia and Teddy. Alone in the lounge, Teddy, after opening up emotionally to his wife, falls to his knees, the flying hero reduced to a quivering wreck at the feet of his wife. It’s an interesting confessional, one that unpacks some of the trauma pilots like Teddy faced during the war, but I felt it lacked authenticity due to the way it was staged. Patricia remains seated at the fire as Teddy walks towards her, which I felt was a mistake and took away Patricia’s moment of realisation. Having her standing and then having Teddy fall to his knees would have been more powerful, offering the audience a much clearer role reversal. It is within this moment I feel Patricia has decided to stay with Teddy. But it’s also in this scene I can’t help but feel that Teddy is manipulating his wife; by opening up, he’s masking his emotions and fears of her leaving him with the impact the war is having on his mental health. Both Caughan and O’Kelly really shone, and the audience becomes more invested in the struggle both are facing. In these big scenes Ward’s direction is flawless, and he’s able to draw out the emotion that he needs from his actors to make their characters realistic and empathetic.
Flare Path’s most powerful scene comes between the Countess and Peter. It's a still moment that needs great care to do it justice, and Ward gives the scene every bit of care it needs. With the Count now missing in action, the Countess comes downstairs to find Peter in the lounge. With a letter in her hand, written by the Count in French, Peter relents and agrees to read his letter to her. Lynch’s resolve in this scene is a masterclass in acting; one could feel the tension of uncertainty she was feeling for the Countess. There is a realness to the Lynch's Countess that is beguiling. For his part, in this scene Reeve makes Peter detached, cold, uncaring, and brutal. He shows no real sign that he’s even engaging or connecting with what he’s reading. Peter is fidgety and just wants to get through it, and as he continues to read the letter, the heartbreaking reality of what the Count has been through is laid bare. Sitting patiently with this subtle smile, the Countess listens and interjects when she needs some clarity. The power of the scene isn’t just through Rattigan’s writing, which is as honest as he gets; it's the underlying nature of how the British suppression of their emotions creates these invisible barriers that become impossible to break down. As the Countess thanks Peter for reading the letter, she makes her way up the stairs with this look of grief etched on her face.
It's a scene you’re unlikely to forget in a hurry, and even with this emotional coldness of the British, the masterful way it’s directed and acted doesn’t escape you. But Count Skriczevinsky’s letter opens up another aspect of WW2 that we tend to take for granted: those non-British soldiers who fought alongside the British. Just under 200,000 Polish soldiers fought for the British; around 19,000 joined the RAF. Within his letter the Count shares his experiences at the hands of the Germans and the horrors he’s lived through. Meeting Doris gave him back his life, and he does, very much so, love her, it’s a love that Peter doesn’t know and that Teddy is yet to experience. But as the war continues to rage, there’s a nagging feeling that I am sure all those men and women forced into exile would have faced: would they have a home to go home to?
Ward’s direction is thoughtful, and within the play's big moments he shows a wonderful, genuine sensitivity to the piece. Every now and then, however, the beats in between lines create elongated pauses that hinder the flow slightly. In the opening scene, having Mrs Oakes come in from the kitchen rather than the front door as Peter walks into the guesthouse would have felt more organic. Ward’s crafted a production that’s richly observed and deeply moving. Much like the 2011 revival directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, Flare Path is a production that can only work if the company realise they are part of an ensemble. This is truly where the strength of the piece is; the Millers, the Grahams, and the Skriczevinskys represent three different sets of lives controlled by war. This company sees this and rises to the challenge and excels, offering an interesting insight into the fictional lives of people that were all too real. When one adds Max Batty’s set, Samuel Littley’s lighting and Phillip Ley’s sound into the mix, this production offers a grandeur to the piece that it so rightly deserves.